Scientific leaders
Valérie vanneaux and Nicolas Ferry
Traumatic ocular or chemical lesions often destroy the cornea, which is the protective transparent cell layer of the eye. The cornea can regenerate from stem cells located in the limb, a specific place of the eye. When the limb is destroyed, there is no possibility of regenerating the cornea. In this case, the cornea is replaced by a connective tissue that is not transparent and the vision is permanently lost. To overcome this problem, the goal of our project is to transform cells of the patient’s epidermis (epithelial cells) into corneal stem cells by transferring a particular gene called PAX6. This gene transfer is performed by an original system of gene transposition, the Sleeping Beauty system. After transduction the epithelial cells become corneal stem cells that are grafted to the patient to remake the cornea.
Doc/post-doc
Funding
Saint-Louis, Lariboisière anf Fernand-Widal university hospitals
Laboratory
Team 3 Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, U 1160 Inserm
Hôpital St-Louis, Bâtiment Hayem
1 avenue Claude Vellefaux
75 010 Paris
