Microbes, the source of life

A pandemic is a complex phenomenon, an invariant for humans in their environment. In fact, from the Neolithic era to the present day, from the cattle plague to Sars-Cov-2, the emergence of new infectious diseases is often the result of changes that humans force on their environment. The emergence of a global health crisis in 2020 is a real warning sign on the uses of life. In this documentary, discover how biologists, anthropologists, mathematicians and historians can help us learn…

Concepteur de cellules artificielles, Franck Molina reprogramme le vivant pour des applications de diagnostic. Il obtient ainsi des détecteurs rapides, bon marché, qui changent de couleur en présence de certains biomarqueurs. Ses travaux ont fait l'objet de nombreux transferts industriels. Directeur de recherche CNRS au laboratoire Modélisation et ingénierie des systèmes complexes biologiques pour le diagnostic (Sys2Diag), qu'il dirige, Franck Molina est un…

How does the SARS-CoV-2 virus infect our cells? Can its complex replication mechanism be stopped? A team from the Architecture and Function of Biological Macromolecules laboratory in Marseille is focusing on this fundamental long-term research work, which is essential to gaining better knowledge of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease before it can be stopped.

Portrait de Christophe Grangeasse, lauréat de la Médaille d'Argent 2020 du CNRS, Directeur de recherche au laboratoire Microbiologie moléculaire et biochimie structurale1 de Lyon, spécialisé dans l'étude du cycle cellulaire bactérien et sa régulation par phosphorylation des protéines.

Portrait de Claude Loverdo, lauréate de la médaille de bronze 2019 du CNRS. Chercheuse en biophysique au laboratoire Jean Perrin (DR02), modélisatrice de dynamiques de populations bactériennes et virales.

It is a long time since phage therapy has increasingly raised the interest of scientists and health care professionals in want for an intercurrent with antibiotic treatments. Bacteriophages which are specific viruses that are harmless to humans are believed to be the key to solving the growing inefficiency of antibiotics caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria. At ISEM, researchers work to improve the ability of phages to minimise bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

Every day, marine viruses kill 40% of our oceans' bacteria. And yet these biological entities are still poorly known. For example, we still know little about their role in the regulation of microalgae, the first link in the food chain that also produces close to a quarter of our planet's oxygen. We travel to the Roscoff Marine Station to see how researchers there are trying to isolate, and better understand these fearsome predators.

In 1969, Thomas Brock showed through his researches that certain microorganisms can live at high temperature, even over 100°C. These are bacteria thermophiles which have colonized the ecological niches next to terrestrial and underwater hot springs. Daniel Prieur, a CNRS microbiologist, recounts the researches of the mission called Microsmoke (November and December 1995) which explored troughs in the Atlantic Ocean at 3.500 meters deep. Bacteria Thermophiles are maybe one of the first form…

Two microbiologists, Daniel Prieur and Patrick Forterre study Thermophilic bacteria which are microorganism that thrives at relatively high temperatures (100°C or even more). Those bacteria proliferate near warm spring. A shorter version of this film is available, called "Extreme bacteria".

Ifremer teams have found a bacterium at the bottom of the oceans that could contribute to the development of regenerative medicine. The aim of teams from the Inserm 791 “Osteo-articular and dental engineering laboratory” research unit and Ifremer is to manufacture injectable gels capable of stimulating the regeneration of cartilage or bone from stem cells. Their key ingredient is a polysaccharide produced by a bacteria of marine origin called Alteromonas infernus.