Cécilia Ménard-Moyon & Vincent Lebrun
Biography - Cécilia Ménard-Moyon
Cécilia Ménard-Moyon is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the Laboratory of Immunology, Immunopathology and Therapeutic Chemistry (I2CT) of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) in Strasbourg.
Her research interests focus on the synthesis and functionalization of different types of inorganic nanoparticles and carbon-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications (anticancer therapy, diagnosis, treatment of autoimmune diseases). Her research also looks at the self-assembly of amino acid derivatives and peptides to form nanoparticles and nanotubes for anti-cancer therapy, and the formation of hydrogels for on-demand drug delivery. She is the coordinator of the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks “Melomanes” project (2023-27) on the synthesis of multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles for combination therapy to treat metastatic melanoma.
Dr. Ménard-Moyon obtained her PhD in organic chemistry in 2005 at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)/Paris-Saclay. She worked on carbon nanotubes, their applications in optical limitation, nanoelectronics and the development of novel methods of functionalization. She carried out a one-year postdoc at the University of York (UK) working on the total synthesis of a natural product. She then spent 18 months in the R&D department of the Belgian company Nanocyl, on the synthesis and functionalization of carbon nanotubes for various applications (electronics, antifouling painting, biomedical applications). She joined the CNRS in 2008 as research associate, obtained the habilitation to conduct research (HDR) from the University of Strasbourg in 2015 and was promoted to research director in 2021.
She was an expert at the Observatory for Micro and NanoTechnologies (OMNT) in the Micro- & nanomedicine group (2013-2017). Cécilia Ménard-Moyon is an active member of the association “Femmes & Sciences”, which mentors PhD candidates and promotes science to students and citizens, and also of the steering committee for the PhD candidate mentoring programme at the University of Strasbourg.
Biography - Vincent Lebrun
Vincent Lebrun is a CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) researcher, since 2017, at the Strasbourg Institute of Chemistry (IC), a joint unit of the University of Strasbourg and CNRS. There, he works in the group "Biometals and Biological Chemistry" (BCB), led by Peter Faller.
His expertise lies at the interface of peptide chemistry, the study of their structure and their biological activity, and the chemistry of metals in biology. His main interest lies in the rational design of peptides folding into β-solenoids and on the design of peptide-based anti-microbial systems.
Dr. Lebrun completed all his studies at the University of Grenoble (France), including his PhD (2014) on metallopeptides modeling zinc fingers, under the supervision of Olivier Sénèque and Jean-Marc Latour. He then moved to the group of Thomas Ward (University of Basel, Switzerland) as a postdoc, to work on artificial metalloenzymes based on the streptavidin-biotin technology.
He is actively involved in the French community of bio-inorganic chemistry (FrenchBIC) as well as in the national network focused on the study of mechanisms dynamics for the formation of protein assemblies (GDR MéDynA).
Fellowship 2024
Dates - 01/09/2024-30/09/2026
Project summary
A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO ENHANCE THE ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES USING PRUSSIAN BLUE NANOPARTICLES
The rise of bacteria that show resistance towards several antibiotics is already a threat today, but will become a major issue for public health in the near future. This calls for the development of new antibiotics. Ideally, these new antibiotics should both circumvent the current resistance mechanisms, but should also be more difficult to develop resistance to. For example, an antibiotic that targets a single protein target can become inefficient after only few generations, as a small number of mutations of the target mean that it is no longer affected by the drug. On the other side of the spectra, some compounds actively affect a broader range of targets, but are limited due to a lack of specificity (human cells vs. bacteria for example) or a poor delivery to the pathogens.
In this project, the objective is to explore the potential benefit of combining two such systems. The first is an inorganic nanoparticle that can deliver high amounts of iron ions to the bacteria, which disrupts its metal homeostasis and triggers oxidative stress. The second is an antimicrobial peptide that has been shown to be bactericidal by selectively disturbing bacteria membrane. We expect there to be a synergistic effect between both components, which should increase the effectiveness of the whole system. The idea is that the peptide allows the system to select specific bacteria and improve the penetration of the nanoparticles into them. Once internalized, the toxicity arising from the release of metal ions should join that of the peptide, as they act via different mechanisms.
During this project, we will first synthesize the antimicrobial peptides and nanoparticles, and compare different ways to conjugate the peptide onto the nanoparticles. The biological properties of the resulting bi-component particles will then be evaluated. Firstly, the compatibility with human cells will be tested together with their ability to trigger an immune response, or not. Secondly, we will determine their activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, often responsible for nosocomial infections, and compare them with the activity of the peptide alone and the functionalised nanoparticles.
