Immunogenomics and Inflammation

The immunigenomics and inflammation unit, EA 4130, is located on the site of the Edouard Herriot Hospital. This unit focuses on translational research, taking advantage of its location.
Its clinical work is related to chronic inflammation in general, and more particularly rheumatoid polyarthritis. In the unit, the research staff work on the heterogeneity of the clinical presentation, the evaluation of cardiovascular risk and the clinical and biological response to biological treatments. This research has a direct link with the clinical immunology and rheumatology department of the Edouard Herriot Hospital, and relies on a large biological collection that has been built up since 1992.
One of the clinic's important areas of research is biomarkers, with particular emphasis placed on extensively analyzing the expression of genes in whole blood using Affymetrix chips. These techniques are applied to predicting the response to anti-TNP biotherapies.
Studying the role of interleukin 17 takes up a considerable part of the more biologically-based research.
The laboratory made a significant contribution to defining the pro-inflammatory and destructive role of this cytokine. These results form the basis for current developments in treatment.
The areas currently being developed are the differential effects of IL-17 on endothelial cells and synoviocytes, and on the differentiation of mesenchymatous cells to form osteoblasts. To better understand the effect of IL-17 in the mechanisms involved in the development of chronicity, the interaction between mesenchymatous cells of different origin, and the differentiation of T-cells to form Th17 lymphocytes are studied.