Laboratory of Biology and Applied Pharmacology

Description of the LBPA

About us

Laboratory of  Biology and Applied Pharmacology (LBPA) is a joint research unit (CNRS - École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay) based on the new ENS Paris-Saclay campus in Gif-sur-Yvette at the heart of the Université Paris-Saclay. It is a fundamental and integrative biology laboratory specializing in studies at molecular and cellular scales and organized around three internationally recognized teams.

This multi-/inter-disciplinary laboratory specializes in the analysis of interactions between biomolecules and conducts studies in the fields of structural biology, biophysics, microbiology, and anti-viral pharmacology, thus defining two interdependent lines of research:

 

  1.      The fundamental study of interactions and molecular mechanisms involved in pathologies, particularly infectious diseases, for which LBPA has a 100 m2 safety level III (L3) laboratory. The aim is to gain a better understanding of living systems, biological functions, and their dysregulation in pathologies.
  2.      Diagnostic and therapeutic applications. LPBA teams are heavily involved in developing innovative analysis methods in these fields, notably for designing new biosensors. Concerning the latter, a start-up (Kimilays) was created in 2020 within the laboratory.

The main topics of study include nucleoprotein complexes involved in genome structure-function relationships (nucleic acid structures and dynamics, chromatin/epigenetics, transcription, helicases, unconventional DNA structures such as G-quadruplexes), (retro)viruses (reverse transcription, HIV integration and expression, Coronavirus entry mechanisms, viral nucleocapsid proteins), host cell-pathogen interactions and anti-viral and antibiotic resistance mechanisms.

The methodological approaches mainly concern molecular biology, biochemistry, molecular biophysics, NMR and X-ray crystallography, molecular modeling, biophotonics and optical imaging, and nanotechnologies.

The LBPA is associated with the biology teaching department of ENS Paris-Saclay as part of a teaching-research department (DERbio), from which it hosts students on internships from L3 to thesis. It is also part of the Institut d'Alembert, an interdisciplinary research federation at ENS Paris-Saclay that also includes the PPSM (chemistry), LUMIN (fundamental physics), and SATIE (applied physics) laboratories.