Group Members

Jean-Jacques Vasseur, Research Director, CNRS.
Tel: 04 48 79 20 48

Jean-Jacques Vasseur received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Montpellier, working on RNA synthesis in solution and on the reactivity of DNA apurinic sites under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Louis Imbach and Dr Bernard Rayner. During his PhD, he was recruited by the CNRS as a research fellow. From 1990 to 1992, he was a visiting scientist at Ionis (formerly Isis) Pharmaceuticals, Carlsbad, USA where he developed backbone-modified oligonucleotide analogues without internucleoside phosphates. In 1992, he returned to Montpellier and worked on cationic oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide prodrugs in the laboratory of Prof. Imbach and later in the laboratory of Dr Gilles Gosselin. He was promoted to Research Director at the CNRS in 1998. In 2003, he created the “modified oligonucleotides” team which he led for almost 20 years. He is currently vice-director of the Max Mousseron Institute of Biomolecules in Montpellier and president of the International Society of Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids (IS3NA). From 2012 to 2022, has been director of the Doctoral School of Chemistry at the University of Montpellier. His research interests include various aspects of nucleic acid chemistry focusing on the design of natural and chemically modified DNAs and RNAs and their conjugates for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. He is the author of over 250 publications and co-inventor of 10 patents.

Publications

Françoise Debart, Research Director CNRS.
Tel: 04 67 61 36 49

Françoise Debart obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Montpellier in 1989 in the laboratory of Prof. J.-L. Imbach. In the same year, she joined the French National Center of Scientific Research (C.N.R.S) as an Associate Researcher. From 1990 to 1992, she was a post-doctoral fellow at IONIS Pharmaceuticals (California, USA) in the field of antisense oligonucleotides. She then moved back to Montpellier in Imbach’s group and she worked on backbone-modified DNA oligonucleotides. Since 2011, she has been a Research Director at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM). For around 15 years, her research interests have focused on the synthesis of modified ribonucleosides and RNA oligonucleotides as valuable tools for therapeutic applications and for understanding the RNA machinery. Her expertise in RNA chemistry is well renown and makes her involved in many pluridisciplinary projects in the field of emerging viruses, epitranscriptomics, RNA arrays…..

Publications

Jean-Yves Winum, Professor of Chemistry, Montpellier University.

Jean-Yves Winum received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Montpellier (France) in 1998 under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Louis Montero. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Prof. Stefan Matile Group at the chemistry department of Georgetown University (Washington, DC, USA) and at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 1999, he joined the University of Montpellier, where he is now Full Professor at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (ChemBioNAC team). His research interests are focused on organic/medicinal chemistry of metalloenzyme inhibitors and their applications as anti-cancer or anti-infective agents. The results of his studies have been published in more than 190 articles, 1 book, and 12 book chapters. He is an associate editor of Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry and a member of the editorial board of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, and Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry.

Publications.

François Morvan, Research Director, Montpellier Inserm.
Tel: 04 67 61 36 50

François Morvan received his PhD in organic chemistry (1988) at the University of Montpellier (France) under the supervision of Dr Rayner and Prof. Imbach on the synthesis of α-DNA. In 1989, he was hired at the Inserm on modified oligonucleotides for antisense applications. From 1992 to 1993, he worked at Ionis Pharmaceuticals (ex ISIS Pharmaceuticals, USA, CA) as a senior visiting scientist. He returned to the University of Montpellier where he is currently Research Director at the Inserm since 2006. In the ChemBioNAC team of the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron, his research focuses on modified oligonucleotides and their conjugates for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, design of neoglycocluster oligonucleotide conjugates and original G-quadruplex analogs. Currently, he develops DNA-inspired aromatic foldamers.

Publications

Christelle Dupouy, Assistant Professor, Montpellier University.
Tel: 04 67 61 36 52

Christelle Dupouy received her Ph.D in 2007 from the University of  Toulouse III- Paul Sabatier under the supervision of Dr Jean-Marc Escudier, on the synthesis and properties of constrained dinucleotides. She, then joined the Prof. J. Chattopadhayaya’s group at Uppsala University (Sweden) for a one year post-doctorate fellow. She worked on the synthesis of modified nucleosides for antisense applications. In 2008, she moved to the Dr Pochet’s team at Institut Pasteur in Paris as a postdoctoral fellow to develop inhibitors of N-glycosylase.
Since 2009, she joined the University of Montpellier as Assistant Professor in the ChemBioNAC team of the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM). Her research interests focus on RNA modifications for therapeutics applications and for understanding the RNA folding.

Publications

Guillaume Clavé, Researcher, CNRS.

Dr. Guillaume Clavé received an engineering degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques de Nancy in 2005. He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Rouen Normandie University in 2009 under the supervision of Pr. Pierre-Yves Renard working on new bioconjugation reagents. He then joined the CEA (Paris-Saclay University) for a one year post-doctorate fellow in the Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherches en Immunoanalyse led by Dr. Hervé Volland to work on protein conjugates for monoclonal antibodies production, followed by two additional years under the supervision of Dr. Stephane Campidelli at the Laboratoire d’Électronique Moléculaire were he was interested to carbon nanotubes or fullerene / DNA conjugates. Thereafter, in 2012 he joined the group of Jean-Marie Beau at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (Gif-sur-Yvette) to develop original florigenic or radioactive probes derived from plant hormones. In 2014, he was recruited as a CNRS Researcher in the ChimEco laboratory directed by Dr. Claude Grison to work on sustainable processes. Since 2018, he joined the ChemBioNac team led by Pr. Michael Smietana at the Institut des Biomolecules Max Mousseron of Montpellier. His current research interests concern the elaboration of nucleic acid bioconjugates and bioactive molecules derived from nucleic acids.

Publications

Pauline Adler, Assistant Professor, Montpellier University.
Tel: 04 67 61 36 52

Pauline Adler was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan, where she passed the ‘Agrégation’ of Physics and Chemistry with success. She received her PhD of the University of Paris-Saclay – Paris Sud in 2016 under the direction of Dr. Nicolas Rabasso, on the study of the synthesis and reactivity of unsaturated aminophosphonates. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Maulide in Vienna (Austria) for almost 2 years (2017 – 2018). Her work was focused on the chemoselective activation of amides. She came back to France for two consecutive one-year-position as Assistant professor in the group of Pr. Grison in the University of Montpellier, working on the development of biobased-catalysts (2018 – 2020). Then, she did a second post-doctoral contract at the IBMM (University of Montpellier) under the supervision of Dr. Jean-François Hernandez. Her work focused on the preparation of pseudopeptides with antimalarial activities, in collaboration with Pasteur Institute (2020 – 2021). Since September 2021, she works as an Assistant Professor in the ChemBioNAC team of the IBMM, in Montpellier. Her research interests focus on the development of DNA-compatible reactions and DNA-based catalysis.

Publications

Albert Meyer, Research Engineer, CNRS.
Tel: 04 67 61 36 50

In 1982, Albert Meyer joined the French National Center of scientific Research (CNRS) to work at the University of Montpellier (France) in the laboratory of Prof.Jean-Louis Imbach. He is a Chemical Engineer, graduated from CNAM in organic chemistry in 1998. In 2007, he was a visiting scientist at Caruthers laboratory (CO, USA) to obtain new skills in mass spectrometry around the construction of DNA and RNA. His research span around various aspects of nucleic acid chemistry focusing notably on the design of chemically modified DNA and their conjugates for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. In 2021, he received the Cristal award from CNRS.