Welcome to the web site of the Trypanosome Cell Biology Unit (TRYPA)!
Our lab is studying African trypanosomes, with perspectives in the field of both parasitology (team directed by Brice Rotureau) and genetic diseases (team directed by Philippe Bastin). Indeed, trypanosomes are significant parasites of man and cattle in central Africa and there are currently no efficient vaccines against them. Moreover, trypanosomes are also excellent models to study human genetic diseases due to defects in cilia and flagella. Our lab is an international mixture with 6 nationalities and expertise in parasitology and cell biology. We are a Pasteur full research unit and are affiliated to the Department of Parasites and Insect Vectors (headed by Lucy Glover) but also to the Department of Cell Biology and Infection (headed by Guillaume Dumenil). We belong to an INSERM unit (U1201, headed by Artur Scherf) that involves two other teams working on Plasmodium and on Leishmania. We are also part of the LabEx IBEID, a consortium whose aim is to develop a structure to anticipate and tackle emerging infectious diseases (Philippe is coordinator, together with Carla Saleh). We are also partners of the Labex ParaFrap. We live on the first floor of the Nicolle building but are travelling regularly through the multiple platforms of the campus.
TWITTER: Please note that the link above is currently not working for technical reasons. Click here for direct connexion to our Twitter thread.
VIDEO: Click here for a general presentation of sleeping sickness (in French)
LATEST NEWS:
22/10/2024. Great presentation by Aline for her last lab meeting
15/07/24 Job alert! New postdoctoral position available in Brice’s team. Click on “Jobs” in the left bar for more information
5/07/2024. Delighted to announce that Justine got a fellowship from the doctoral school to investigate trypanosome development in the tsetse fly!
17/06/2024. Serge and Aline’s paper on LRRC56, the first IFT cargo ever formally demonstrated in trypanosomes is out in MBoC! It shows unexpected connection with the docking complex.
Click to see IFT and LRRC trafficking: Movie S1
15/01/2024. We have the pleasure to host Andreu Saura from the lab of Slava Yurchenko. He is going to spend one month with us investigating flagella of the intriguing Vickermania parasite.
06/12/2023. Congratulations to Thierry and Nathalie who were awarded the “médaille d’honneur du travail” for respectively 40 and 35 years at Institut Pasteur!
29/09/2023. Congratulations to Daniel who did a brilliant PhD defence! Many thanks to all jury members for their participation.
17/07/2023. Welcome to two new lab members, Dr Hashem Almousa as postdoctoral fellow and Hilin Finianos as a summer student.
18/06/2023. Great experience during our lab retreat at Saint-Malo, multiple discussions around all topics of the unit and also nice time in the evening walking on the beach ;)
06/06/2023. How and why do amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi bother retaining a motile flagellum? Read our opinion piece with Aline in mBio
14/04/2023. We have a Master position open! Click here for more information. Apply now for a 6-month project in 2023-24.
01/04/2023 Welcome to Christine who joins us as a research engineer!
31/03/2023 Thierry left us for a well-deserved retirement after 17 years in the lab. Thank you so much for all the great work, the exceptional images and the unvaluable friendship!
31/08/2022. Fantastic week with the visit of our partners for the PTR project with IP Montevideo, IP Lille and Oxford Brookes University. Multiple exciting discussions about basal body and centrioles in T. brucei and in Toxoplasma.
01/08/2022. A little party to celebrate our “Equipe FRM” grant! Congratulations to all contributors and thank you FRM!
01/07/2022. Adeline’s image of segmented trypanosome flagella is on the front cover of Bioessays!
03/06/2022. In this Bioessays manuscript, we propose a new hypothesis to explain cilia diversification across evolution. More information on this Twitter thread.
18/05/2021. Estefania’s paper on FLAM8 distribution during the trypanosome life cycle is now available on line: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cmi.13347
17/05/2021. Superb front cover from our friend Hassan Hashimi! 
01/03/2021. Seb’s paper on gene expression in parasites from the salivary glands is now available on BioRxiv. Feedback is welcome! 
24/02/2021. Very happy that our FIB-SEM data could be exploited for analysis of the trypanosome mitochondrion! Link here to download the paper. 03/12/2020. Congratulations to Adeline Mallet who successfully defended her thesis yesterday!
11/11/2020 First molecular insights in the locking mechanisms now published in JCB! Great collaboration with the lab of Sue Vaughan at Oxford Brookes University! 
31/08/2020. Eloïse’s paper on IFT in different life cycle stages of trypanosomes is now published in JCS. It was a real “tour de force” to deal with these wiggling parasites! This video showing FRAP to evaluate the dynamics of IFT proteins at the tip of the flagellum of short epimastigote cells is particularly stunning! Video FRAP 15/07/2020. We have received more than 100 applications for the PhD position. Many thanks to those who applied, we are going to interview candidates very soon. 30/06/2020. We said goodbye to Estefania who spent 5 years in the lab under the supervision of Brice. We thank her for the hard work and the constant enthusiasm and wish her all the best for the future. 
OTHER NEWS: see bottom of the page
