Venite Cantemus
Venite Cantemus is an international choral event in aid of a charitable cause.
At
its fourth edition in November 2019 at l’Opéra Comique, Venite Cantemus
will support this year research on mental disorders : they appear most
frequently before the age of 25, they complexify and make personal
relations between the patients and their family and relatives difficult
and painful.
Pyschiatric disorders – amongst which autism,
schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and depression- affect 25% of people
during their life (source : WHO). It is a major public health challenge.
About the project that will be funded thanks to Venite Cantemus event
Schizophrenia is a serious disease that affects nearly 1% of the world's population. Schizophrenia is
characterized by hallucinations and delusions, social withdrawal and cognitive impairment. Recent studies have shown that genes encoding key components of the immune system are strongly associated with schizophrenia. In particular, genes conferring high expression of complement C4, a protein involved in the defense against pathogens, are among the strongest risk factors for schizophrenia. During her thesis, Mélanie Druart has developed new animal model of C4 overexpression in the brain. With this model, that reproduces several alterations of the schizophrenic brain, she wants to understand the C4 role in the brain defects associated with schizophrenia.
The team leading the project
Corentin Le Magueresse has been a researcher at the Institut du Fer à Moulin (INSERM, Paris) since 2013. His work focuses on the normal and pathological maturation of the brain. In 2006, he obtained a PhD in Neuropharmacology for his work on the effect of nicotine in the developing brain performed at the Institut Pasteur and the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy. He then joined the Department of Clinical Neurobiology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, for six years to study the migration and function of neurons in the immature cortex. At INSERM, his research is centered on the links between the immune system and neural development, and in particular on their alterations in psychiatric diseases. When he is not in his laboratory, Corentin plays with his two- and four-year-old children, and sometimes finds time to play the violin.
Mélanie Druart has been a doctoral student at the Institut du Fer à Moulin since 2016, following undergraduate studies in Biology and Neuroscience at Sorbonne University (ex-Université Paris VI Pierre et Marie Curie). As part of her PhD, she is studying how the gene most strongly involved in the predisposition to schizophrenia, the C4 gene of the immune system, influences the formation and functioning of neural networks. Mélanie is passionate about science, and is an avid runner and an adept of French boxing.
To learn more on schizophrenia, please visit the pages of our website dedicated to this disease (in french)