Person
Lescure, Alain
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Biography and Research Interest
The scientific interest of our team concerns the elucidation of the biological and physiological role of the essential trace element selenium.
Selenium deficiencies can lead to various pathologies such as ageing, cardiomyopathies, increased succeptibility to cancers, male infertility. Selenocysteine, the major biological form of selenium, is considered to be the 21st amino acid and is cotranslationally incorporated into the active site of selenoproteins. These pleiotropic defects reflect the functional diversity of the selenoproteins, enzymes involved in a variety of redox pathways: reduction of reactive oxygen species and oxydized bio-molecules, maturation of the thyroid hormone, several reactions involved in sperm maturation. Besides, it was shown that patients carrying mutations in the gene encoding a recently discovered selenoprotein, develop a congenital muscular dystrophy.
Considering the obvious biomedical interest of selenoproteins, an important aspect of our research efforts is devoted to uncovering novel selenoproteins in eukaryotic genomes and to elucidating their function.
Selenium deficiencies can lead to various pathologies such as ageing, cardiomyopathies, increased succeptibility to cancers, male infertility. Selenocysteine, the major biological form of selenium, is considered to be the 21st amino acid and is cotranslationally incorporated into the active site of selenoproteins. These pleiotropic defects reflect the functional diversity of the selenoproteins, enzymes involved in a variety of redox pathways: reduction of reactive oxygen species and oxydized bio-molecules, maturation of the thyroid hormone, several reactions involved in sperm maturation. Besides, it was shown that patients carrying mutations in the gene encoding a recently discovered selenoprotein, develop a congenital muscular dystrophy.
Considering the obvious biomedical interest of selenoproteins, an important aspect of our research efforts is devoted to uncovering novel selenoproteins in eukaryotic genomes and to elucidating their function.
Non-Zebrafish Publications