Ms

Doctoral thesis (2012)

Service sector firms have long been neglected in innovation studies despite their increasing importance for economy. However, recent research has revealed that service firms do innovate although they ... [more ▼]

Service sector firms have long been neglected in innovation studies despite their increasing importance for economy. However, recent research has revealed that service firms do innovate although they follow distinct paths and reach different outcomes than those of the manufacturing sector. Measuring the effects of innovation on performance has thus become an essential concern for both policy‐makers and business leaders. This dissertation specifically contributes to the current debate on the effects of innovation on performance at firm‐level in the service sector by shedding more light on the characteristics of these complex relationships and by defining its underlying mechanisms. For these purposes, an intellectual capital perspective is adopted. This dissertation first takes a broad sector approach to services, focusing on potentially innovative core service activities, and relying on the concept of relational capital, it explores the most commonly reported feature of innovation in services, which is the openness of the innovation process. As prior research indicates that there is a diversity of innovation patterns in services, the dissertation then concentrates on financial service firms. Besides their own significance, financial firms play a critical role in the proper functioning of the entire economy. Focusing on this specific industry, the dissertation further delineates the innovation process into its constitutive elements, referring to human, structural and relational capital concepts. The setting for most of the empirical studies is Luxembourg, which allows benefitting from the peculiarities of this small, open, international but highly innovative economy dominated by service firms. This dissertation mainly concludes that adopting an open strategy for innovation activities brings differentiated results according to the partners involved, with some contrast observed between market, science and competitor co‐operation. When examining how resources mobilized in the innovation process interact to affect performance in financial services, the dominant role of relational capital emerges. Furthermore, the examination unveils the interaction effects between the constitutive elements of intellectual capital and confirms the importance of the orientation towards innovation, in its various facets, in financial firms. Overall, this dissertation shows that adopting an intellectual capital perspective to understand the innovation process, to reveal its main ingredients and to disentangle its effects on performance can be insightful. [less ▲]

MSH2 gene dosage mediates azathioprine-induced carcinogenesis in mice

in Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2010)

MT-MMPs as regulators of vessel stability associated with angiogenesis

in Frontiers in Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs (2011), 2:111

The development of vascular system depends on the coordinated activity of a number of distinct families of molecules including growth factors and their receptors, cell adhesion molecules, extracellular ... [more ▼]

The development of vascular system depends on the coordinated activity of a number of distinct families of molecules including growth factors and their receptors, cell adhesion molecules, extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, and proteolytic enzymes. Matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) are a family of ECM degrading enzymes required for both physiological and pathological angiogenesis. Increasing evidence, point to a direct role of membrane type-MMPs (MT-MMPs) in vascular system stabilization, maturation, and leakage. Our understanding of the nature of MT-MMP interaction with extracellular and cell surface molecules and their multiple roles in vessel walls and perivascular stroma may provide new insights into mechanisms underlying vascular cell-ECM interactions and cell fate decisions in pathological conditions. Regulation of vascular leakage by MT-MMP interactions with the ECM could also lead to novel targeting opportunities for drug delivery in tumor. This review will shed lights on the emerging roles of MT1-MMP and MT4-MMP in vascular system alterations associated with cancer progression. [less ▲]

MT1-MMP protects breast carcinoma cells against type I collagen-induced apoptosis

in Oncogene (2012), 31(4), 480-93

As invading breast carcinoma cells breach their underlying basement membrane, they become confronted with a dense three-dimensional reactive stroma dominated by type I collagen. To develop metastatic ... [more ▼]

As invading breast carcinoma cells breach their underlying basement membrane, they become confronted with a dense three-dimensional reactive stroma dominated by type I collagen. To develop metastatic capabilities, invading tumor cells must acquire the capacity to negotiate this novel microenvironment. Collagen influences the fate of epithelial cells by inducing apoptosis. However, the mechanisms used by invading tumor cells to evade collagen-induced apoptosis remain to be defined. We demonstrate that membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP/MMP-14) confers breast cancer cells with the ability to escape apoptosis when embedded in a collagen gel and after orthotopic implantation in vivo. In the absence of MMP-14-dependent proteolysis, type I collagen triggers apoptosis by inducing the expression of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2-interacting killer in luminal-like breast cancer cells. These findings reveal a new mechanism whereby MMP-14 activity promotes tumor progression by circumventing apoptosis. [less ▲]

The mTor inhibitor rapamycin delays xenogeneic acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) in NOD/SCID/IL2rgnull mice (NSG): impact of regulatory T cells

Poster (2011)

A much lower density for the transiting extrasolar planet WASP-7.

Textual, factual or bibliographical database (2011)

Mucoadhesive composition comprising polyacrylate and chemoattractant

Patent (2006)

MUCOADHESIVE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING CHEMOATTRACTANTS.

Patent (2006)

Mucormycose invasive du poumon et du rachis dorsal.

in Revue Médicale de Liège (2008), 63

Nous rapportons le cas d'un patient de 67 ans atteint d'un syndrome myélodysplasique et qui a développé une mucormycose pulmonaire avec extension tout à fait exceptionnelle vers le rachis dorsal ... [more ▼]

Nous rapportons le cas d'un patient de 67 ans atteint d'un syndrome myélodysplasique et qui a développé une mucormycose pulmonaire avec extension tout à fait exceptionnelle vers le rachis dorsal responsable d'un paraplégie aiguë. Après échec d'un traitement probabiliste anti-aspergillaire, c'est finalement l'analyse des prélèvements obtenus lors de la laminectomie décompressive qui a fourni le diagnostic mycologique. En raison d'une altération majeure de l'état général, la lobectomie prévue n'a pu être réalisée et malgré l'adaptation du traitement antifongique (Abelcet, Posaconazole), le patient est décédé. La mucormycose (ou zygomycose) pulmonaire est une infection fongique peu commune qui touche essentiellement les patients immuno-déprimés. Le champignon pathogène fait partie des zygomycètes dont la caractéristique principale est la capacité d'angio-invasion. L'invasion périneurale est une autre voie de propagation récemment mise en évidence. Les difficultés thérapeutiques associées à cette pathologie sont liées au terrain d'immunodépression, aux difficultés d'obtenir rapidement un diagnostic précis ainsi qu'à l'absence de sensibilité du Mucor aux antifongiques récemment introduits (V-Fend, Cancidas). Ceci souligne le risque inhérent à un traitement antifongique empirique par ces agents et la nécessité d'un prélèvement biopsique précoce en cas de non-réponse au traitement. [less ▲]

Mucosal gene expression of cell adhesion molecules, chemokines, and chemokine receptors in patients with inflammatory bowel disease before and after infliximab treatment.

in Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica (2011), 106(4), 748-61

OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by a continuous influx of leukocytes into the gut wall. This migration is regulated by cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), and selective ... [more ▼]

OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by a continuous influx of leukocytes into the gut wall. This migration is regulated by cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), and selective antimigration therapies have been developed. This study investigated the effect of infliximab therapy on the mucosal gene expression of CAMs in IBD. METHODS: Mucosal gene expression of 69 leukocyte/endothelial CAMs and E-cadherin was investigated in 61 IBD patients before and after first infliximab infusion and in 12 normal controls, using Affymetrix gene expression microarrays. Quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR (qRT-PCR), immunohistochemistry, and western blotting were used to confirm the microarray data. RESULTS: When compared with control colons, the colonic mucosal gene expression of most leukocyte/endothelial adhesion molecules was upregulated and E-cadherin gene expression was downregulated in active colonic IBD (IBDc) before therapy, with no significant colonic gene expression differences between ulcerative colitis and colonic Crohn's disease. Infliximab therapy restored the upregulations of leukocyte CAMs in IBDc responders to infliximab that paralleled the disappearance of the inflammatory cells from the colonic lamina propria. Also, the colonic gene expression of endothelial CAMs and of most chemokines/chemokine receptors returned to normal after therapy in IBDc responders, and only CCL20 and CXCL1-2 expression remained increased after therapy in IBDc responders vs. control colons. When compared with control ileums, the ileal gene expression of MADCAM1, THY1, PECAM1, CCL28, CXCL1, -2, -5, -6, and -11, and IL8 was increased and CD58 expression was decreased in active ileal Crohn's disease (CDi) before therapy, and none of the genes remained dysregulated after therapy in CDi responders vs. control ileums. This microarray study identified a number of interesting targets for antiadhesion therapy including PECAM1, IL8, and CCL20, besides the currently studied alpha4beta7 integrin-MADCAM1 axis. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that many leukocyte/endothelial CAMs and chemokines/chemokine receptors are upregulated in inflamed IBD mucosa. Controlling the inflammation with infliximab restores most of these dysregulations in IBD. These results show that at least part of the mechanism of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha therapy goes through downregulation of certain adhesion molecules. [less ▲]