Role of Gamma Delta T cells in HPV-induced Cancer Progression

Poster (2013, January 28)

Unravelling the roles of lysine acetylation by Elp3 during inner ear development

Poster (2013, January 28)

The inner ear is composed of the vestibular system that controls balance, and the cochlea, which is dedicated to hearing. In both parts of the inner ear, sensory epithelia comprise supporting cells ... [more ▼]

The inner ear is composed of the vestibular system that controls balance, and the cochlea, which is dedicated to hearing. In both parts of the inner ear, sensory epithelia comprise supporting cells surrounding the sensory hair cells. These cells bear at their apical surface a staircase-structured bundle, consisting of multiple rows of actin-based stereocilia and a single tubulin-based kinocilium. This hair bundle allows the transduction from mechanical stimuli, initiated by sound or gravitational changes, to electrical signals that will then be transmitted by neurons from the spiral ganglion (innervating hair cells of the cochlea) or the vestibular ganglion. The inner ear organogenesis requires a tightly regulated transcriptional program that can be affected by post-transcriptional and post-translational modifications among which lysine acetylation. Given the importance of acetylation homeostasis in controlling developmental processes, we planned to investigate its role in inner ear formation and focused our attention on Elp3 acetyl-transferase, a member of the Elongator complex recently implicated in neurogenesis. To determine the role of Elp3 in the inner ear, we first determine the spatio-temporal pattern of ELp3 mRNA expression and showed that it was expressed in the entire early otocyst at E11.5 and persisted later in the sensory epithelium of the cochlea (the organ of Corti), in the spiral ganglion, in the stria vascularis and in the vestibule. To unravel in vivo functions of Elp3 in the inner ear, we have generated conditional knock-out mice (Elp3 cKO). We submitted these mice to a battery of vestibular testing (i.e. stereotyped circling ambulation, head bobbing, retropulsion, and absence of reaching response in the tail-hanging test) and found significant abnormalities. Besides, compared to wild-type mice, the auditory brain stem response of Elp3 cKO indicated that these mice are severely deaf. At the cellular level, we did not found any structural abnormalities nor cell patterning impairments that could explain deafness or balance dysfunction in Elp3 cKO mice. However, we detected some defaults in the planar orientation of their auditory hair cell bundle. In addition, the length of the kinocilium was significantly reduced both in vestibular and cochlear hair cells from Elp3 cKO mice compared with wild type littermates. We were also able to demonstrate an increased level of apoptosis in the Elp3 cKO spiral ganglion at E14.5 leading to a reduced number of fibers innervating the cochlear hair cells as well as a reduced number of their synaptic ribbons at P0 and P15. In conclusion, our results clearly showed a role of Elp3 both in hearing and balance. We plan to go deeper in the mechanisms involved through the identification of the proteins acetylated by Elp3. [less ▲]

Charlemagne : un vrai liégeois

Conference given outside the academic context (2013)

Cette conférence grand public visait à exposer les arguments qui s'opposent à la thèse de la naissance de Charlemagne à Liège tout en soulignant l'importance du souvenir de l'empereur carolingien dans nos ... [more ▼]

Cette conférence grand public visait à exposer les arguments qui s'opposent à la thèse de la naissance de Charlemagne à Liège tout en soulignant l'importance du souvenir de l'empereur carolingien dans nos régions [less ▲]

Configurations publiques de Dionysos dans le cadre de l'hellénisation de Rome

Conference (2013, January 25)

En 140/39 av. J.-C., une mission romaine composée, entre autres, de Scipion Emilien et du philosophe Panétios visita les alliés orientaux de Rome et se rendit notamment à Alexandrie. Le roi Ptolémée VIII ... [more ▼]

En 140/39 av. J.-C., une mission romaine composée, entre autres, de Scipion Emilien et du philosophe Panétios visita les alliés orientaux de Rome et se rendit notamment à Alexandrie. Le roi Ptolémée VIII y accueillit officiellement ces hôtes prestigieux, vêtu d’un habit étrange : un chiton long et subtil, dont les auteurs anciens réfèrent unanimement l’effet efféminé et caricatural, au point de susciter le rire des Romains et une condamnation du luxe effréné et décadent du royaume égyptien par comparaison avec la sobriété romaine. Il a fallu attendre une étude de H. Heinen en 1983 pour reconnaître, d’une part, l’envergure idéologique du lien entre la tenue de Ptolémée VIII – en fait empruntée à l’iconographie hellénistique de Dionysos – et la mise en scène officielle de la tryphè et du pouvoir royal et, de l’autre, le sens politique de la représentation caricaturale qu’en donna probablement déjà Panétios, représentation qui fut relayée et amplifiée par toute une tradition historiographique philo-romaine, qui se développa tout au long de la conquête romaine de la Méditerranée et ensuite à l’occasion du conflit entre Octavien et Antoine. Cette tradition nous a transmis, par le biais des auteurs de l’époque impériale, un discours fondé sur l’opposition entre Rome (et l’Italie), vertueuse source de citoyens et de soldats, et l’Orient dégénéré. Dans un tel cadre, Dionysos et le dionysisme sont sollicités pour servir à la construction d’un modèle accusatoire contre les ennemis de Rome, incarnant le désordre dans une dimension à la foi individuelle et institutionnelle. Mais est-ce que cette vision idéologique nous donne un portrait satisfaisant des rapports réels entre Rome et Dionysos / Bacchos / Liber Pater ? En partant de cette question, je propose dans ma contribution une approche visant à analyser, à l’aide de sources aussi littéraires que documentaires, les contextes de contact entre Rome et Dionysos de l’époque hellénistique au début du Principat, pour essayer de mettre en relief les relations entre, d’une part, la répulsion et le refus idéologiques du dionysisme, de l’autre les démarches d’appropriation et d’adaptation, à la culture romaine, de traits caractérisant les cultes hellénistiques de Dionysos et leurs utilisation dans la mise en forme des pratiques du pouvoir et de leurs représentations. [less ▲]

Simultaneous diagnosis of CLL and CML in a single patient with evidence for two different cell clones

Poster (2013, January 25)

Principal static wind loads

in Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics (2013), 113

In current wind design practice, static wind loads are usually defined to obtain, by simple static analyses, the extreme values of any structural response that would be formally obtained with a strict ... [more ▼]

In current wind design practice, static wind loads are usually defined to obtain, by simple static analyses, the extreme values of any structural response that would be formally obtained with a strict dynamic buffeting analysis. The minimum and maximum values that may reach any response define the envelope. Equivalent static wind loads (ESWLs) allow to recover extreme responses in the envelope. As a first objective, this paper formalizes a general method to determine ESWL, in a nodal basis, by extending the concept of load-response correlation, which is only valid in the background range. The general method, the displacement-response-correlation (DRC) method, covers the background and resonant contributions of the considered response. As a second objective, the paper addresses the problem of building a set of static wind loads that adequately reconstructs the envelopes of responses. The concept of principal static wind loads (PSWL) is introduced to form a reduced basis of representative loads well-suited for envelope reconstruction. Its optimality is demonstrated both analytically and with a detailed illustrative example. [less ▲]

Le thymus aujourd'hui : d'un organe 'vestigial' à la tolérance au Soi et à l'auto-immunité

Conference given outside the academic context (2013)

Euroback : une plateforme d'échange pour une gestion efficace des collections

Conference given outside the academic context (2013)

Formes & forces. Lecture conceptuelle d’architectures au travers de champs disciplinaires connexes.

Doctoral thesis (2013)

This research starts from a lack of conceptualisation, in the architectural field, around the notion of non-figuration. Postmodern Movement’s ideological opposition to Modern Architecture and its ascetic ... [more ▼]

This research starts from a lack of conceptualisation, in the architectural field, around the notion of non-figuration. Postmodern Movement’s ideological opposition to Modern Architecture and its ascetic aesthetic led to the promotion of signs and images. This prevents a reading of Modern Architecture around notions such as openness, opacity linked to non-figuration as defined by Umberto Eco in his essay Opera Operta. U. Eco’s literary analysis finds a relevant synthesis in G. Deleuze’s work who develops three approaches of non-figuration in pictural art : abstract art (P. Mondrian), figural art (F. Bacon) and informal art (J. Pollock). These categories represent a specific way of exceeding figuration and forms in favour of the forces on the canvas. The thesis aims at evaluating the applicability of these categories to Modern Architecture. The study of three architectural theorists - R. Venturi, C. Norberg-Schulz and C. Rowe - allows us to clarify non-figuration in architecture. This leads to point two specific constraints: functionality and presence that involve architecture in a figurative field. The thesis than articulates architecture’s specific restrictions to non-figuration with G. Deleuze’s aesthetic and philosophy. The analysis of P. Eisenman, L.I. Kahn, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe’s buildings show progressively the necessity to enrich architecture with irrationality, a way of exceeding figurative content. Finally, the thesis discusses the theoretical issues of this approach and examines the possibility to analyse architectural history with non-figurative concepts developed in this research. These kinds of processes, freed of their stylistic content, allow, for example, Modern Architecture and Baroque to get closer. This work also establishes the possibility to develop similar processes of analysis between the different artistic fields (painting, literature, architecture) with same results. [less ▲]

Développement Durable et Augmentation des Besoins Energétiques: état des lieux et enjeux pour le futur

Conference (2013, January 24)