Helene Hirbec

My overall research interests are to study the pathophysiological mechanisms that lead to neurodegenerative diseases. My current researches aim at deciphering the contribution of glial cells, in particular microglial cells, to Alzheimer Disease progression. I am specifically interested in the early stages of the disease as targeting these phases represent an opportunity to develop new therapeutic strategies that hopefully may result in stronger therapeutic effects. The final objectives of my researches are to identify molecular signaling pathways to target these cells for therapy or use them as disease biomarkers. To achieve these goals, we use complementary approaches ranging from molecular analyses to cellular approaches and behavioral studies in Alzheimer Disease animal models. To study glial cells at the transcriptomic level, I have implemented different approaches to purify microglia, and more recently astrocytes, with minimal transcriptional disturbances. We use high-content transcriptomic approaches such as RNAseq or Nanostring technologies to study transcriptome deregulations, and trained myself in bioinformatics and biostatistics for data analysis. To study microglia at the cellular level, we use cell culture as well as hippocampal organotypic slice approaches combined with functional assays such as phagocytosis, cytokine release, ROS production, etc.. To determine the impact of the disease and/or of the therapeutic strategies tested, cognitive deficits are studied using a wide range of behavioral tests for which we have long experience. Our research group is working in close relationships with several highly qualified technological platforms, namely MGX for genomic approaches, StatABio for advanced statistical analyses, MRI for advanced imaging and image analysis and RHEM for histology. We regularly collaborate with other French research teams interested in the role of non-neuronal cells in AD, in particular the team of Dr Carole Escartin at MIRCen (CEA, Fontenay-aux-Roses).