Projects

The “BIOlogy of GPCR Signaling Systems” (BIOS) team brings together mathematicians, bioinformaticians and biologists to better understand, model and control the signaling of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). BIOS mainly focuses on three GPCRs of interest, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and oxytocin receptors (FSHR, LHR and OTR respectively), from their activation mechanisms to their effect in reproduction or in social behavior. Five permanent members of BIOS are also part of the joint INRIA-INRAE-CNRS project team “Multiscale population dynamics for physiological systems” (MUSCA). MUSCA is an interdisciplinary team in biomathematics and systems biology, which uses the formalism of structured population dynamics for multi-scale modeling in physiology.

Following the binding of their ligands, GPCRs recruit their transducing proteins and induce the activation of intracellular signaling networks, regulating translation, transcription, and contributing to cellular plasticity. All of these adaptive events act in a coordinated manner to lead to an integrated physiological response throughout the organism. The main question of BIOS is to understand how signaling networks induced by activation of FSHR, LHR and OTR receptors modulate reproduction or social behavior. The objective is therefore to decipher the genesis of this signaling at the proximal level of the receptor (axis 1), its intracellular spatio-temporality (axis 2) and its effects at the cellular scale (axis 3), and in vivo (axis 4 ). To understand and control these signaling networks, the team uses the pharmacological properties of innovative ligands and multi-scale modeling approaches.

• Axis 1: #Signaling Bias
• Axis 2: #Compartmentalized signaling
• Axis 3: #Translation and plasticity
• Axis 4: #Multi-scale Modeling