2018 A YEAR AT THE CNRS IN ALSACE TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 2018 in figures 3 > 5 Talents & Highlights 2018 A YEAR AT THE CNRS IN ALSACE editorial is a regional addition to the activity report 2018, a year at the CNRS 6 > 10 PATRICE SOULLIE THE LIVING WORLD regional delegate in Alsace A number of facts published in this report, results of scientific equipment, came to be thanks to the support of the European Union, the Région Grand Est, the Conseils departementaux du Bas-Rhin et du Haut-Rhin, the Eurométropole de Strasbourg and the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomeration, as well as numerous academic, With this new publication, I would like to invite you to find ____ industrial and nonprofit partners. out about the vitality of the research carried out in CNRS They are hereby thanked for their support to the CNRS unit's research excellence in Alsace. laboratories in Alsace in 2018. This selection of highlights will take you from the seabed to the edge of the stars, from Luxor 11 to French Guiana, via a plunge into the heart of fascinating systems which may be living or not. We need to bear in mind that this research at the frontiers of SOCIETES knowledge is carried out in close, regular contact with our academic partners - first and foremost universities - and that this research is constantly supported by local authorities, research actors and other support structures. Publisher Antoine Petit Editorial director Patrice Soullie Every year, CNRS medals are awarded to scientists at different Chief editor Céline Delalex-Bindner stages of their careers. In 2018 the CNRS in Alsace had the Scientific committee Dominique Badariotti opportunity to organize a collective awards ceremony and thus Rémi Barillon 12 > 13 Pierre-Alain Duc reveal the talents in research in Alsace along with their teams, Vincente Fortier laboratories and the discipline in which they work. At the time Jean-Luc Galzi of writing this editorial I am delighted to hear that Professor Christian Gauthier MATTER Frédéric Leroux Thomas Ebbesen has been awarded the 2019 CNRS Gold Medal. Frédéric Masson This is a further demonstration of the excellence of research in Sylviane Muller Alsace. Jean-Serge Rémy Vincent Roucoules As we celebrate our establishment's 80th anniversary in 2019, Coordination, writing and iconography Antoine Rigaud we can be sure that the scientists in our units will continue to Layout and realisation Olivier Fély make advances in knowledge for the good of society. Graphic design Céline Hein 14 > 15 Acknowledgements : Anne Bresson, Thomas Grutter, Pascaline Toutois We would like to thank all those who contributed to the ENGINEERING AND production of this document. DIGITAL SCIENCES I hope you enjoy reading this brochure. Translation : Katherine Kean and Richard Dickinson from the Inist-CNRS Translation Service Strasbourg, August 2019 Legal deposit: november 2019 - ISSN : 2270-4876 16 EARTH AND ____ Dialogue is essential with our partners, ENVIRONMENT the universities, schools and so forth with This pictogram gives you access whom we share scientific priorities and to additional informations resources or with local authorities with whom online we have initiated new forms of collaboration. We must strengthen and improve this CNRS délégation Alsace 17 > 19 ____ 23 rue du Lœss - BP20 dialogue. 67037 Strasbourg Cedex 2 Antoine Petit, 03 88 10 63 01 THE UNIVERSE CNRS President and CEO www.alsace.cnrs.fr CNRS_Alsace 18 > 19 Science without borders 20 List of laboratories THE WORDS OF TALENTS Bronze medal STAFF MEMBERS 1 619 The CNRS bronze medal is awarded in recognition of the initial work of a promising researcher silver medal in their field. 2018 The CNRS Silver Medal is award to researchers at the 518 739 362 CHRISTINE CARAPITO beginning of their careers who are already recognized IN FIGURES researchers engineers and contractual __"The protein mass spectrometry at national and international levels. technicians employees classes during my biotechnology december 31th engineering course fascinated me. The idea was to be able to characterize a BRUNO KLAHOLZ proteome to obtain a molecular image “I was fascinated in secondary school by the ressources of a living system using data from a structure of DNA and first became interested in mass spectrometer which is rather chemistry which forms the basis of reactivity like doing a puzzle. This science is at and molecular recognition. I later began an average of the interface of analytical chemistry working on X-ray crystallography to study and biology and has undergone a real RESEARCH AND interactions between ligands and therapeutic revolution requiring the development of targets and then cryogenic electron microscopy SERVICE UNITS bioinformatics tools adapted to Big Data. 39 2 563 I am currently working at this crossroads to study large macromolecular complexes. This of disciplines on the development of makes it possible to address structure-function SCIENTIFIC © N. Busser 85% are in pertnership with the Université de mass spectrometry and bioinformatic relationships within the various nucleoprotein Strasbourg, the Université de Haute-Alsace, the Inserm, PUBLICATIONS methodologies for proteome analysis. Integrating proteome complexes which regulate gene expression. As I © L. Velasquez the Insa, the Institut franco-allemand de Saint-Louis, per year data with genome sequencing data will pave the way for the studied multi-scale integration and was involved the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Strasbourg personalized medicine of tomorrow." in technological advances in electron cryomicroscopy, it was a joy to Institut pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien see the first side chains of amino acids and nucleotides appear on the of wich human ribosome in 2014 (a study which began in 2003!) and then 65,8% are co-signed with a foreign Crystal medal to be able to visualize the chemical modifications of ribosomal RNA 34 laboratory for the period The CNRS crystal medal rewards CNRS engineers in 2016.” 5 Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire research units service units 2016-2017 and technicians who contribute to making scientific discoveries and progress in knowledge. CHRISTINE HU GUO research __"I first got a taste of the adventure of JEAN-FRANÇOIS LUTZ the CERN's Large Hadron Collider when “The main objective of my work is to study and my team of engineers and I designed the define the molecular structure and properties of HAL25 chip which reads the signals from synthetic polymers in as much detail and as 2 the ALICE experiment's trajectometer. easily as possible. Very early on in my research 96 000 m Following on from this success, we began A BUDGET OF MILLION EUROS work on the idea which most appealed to us career, I realized that there was still a huge gap 156 OF REAL ESTATE - to invent CMOS sensors with integrated between the biological polymers forged by MANAGED BY THE CNRS pixels which would go beyond the limits of billions of years of evolution and human plastics of wich 35,7 M€ detecting charged particles. After 10 years that have only been produced on earth for a come from self-generated income on 3 SITES of enthusiastic research, a 360 megapixel century. DNA and proteins are, for example, detector for the STAR experiment in the biopolymers which can be used for tasks that United States was launched in 2013. This are as yet unachievable with synthetic was a world first and has indeed become © N. Busser financing establishment © N. Busser macromolecules. I apply a watchmaker's the reference in the field. It validated our precision to selecting simple forms of chemistry which could ideas and convinced members of the particle physics community perhaps make it possible to make human polymers to use this kind of detector for their own large-scale instruments. as elaborate as living polymers or even more so.” In this way with ALICE which was rightly acknowledged by 3 START-UP research history and CBM at FAIR, we have continued to open up Institut Charles Sadron 607 571 244 new fields of study of the sensors of the future." PATENT FAMILIES FOUNDED IN 2018 Institut pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien SIGNED CONTRATS CONTRACTS managed by the CNRS in 2018 for 33,8 M€ 28 NEW PRIORITY 54 START-UP A collective medal award ceremony was organised for the first time in Alsace and provided an opportunity to bring together our medal winners along with representatives of the units, the CNRS and our partners. dont for 32,6 M€ PATENT APPLICATIONS FOUNDED SINCE 1999 From left to right:Jean-Marie Lehn, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Christian Gauthier, director of the Institut Charles Sadron, Jacques Maddaluno, director of the CNRS Institute of Chemistry, Patrice Soullie, CNRS regional delegate, Jean-François Lutz, Christine Carapito, Christine Hu Guo, Bruno valorisation Klaholz, Bernard Poulain, deputy scientific director of the CNRS Institute of Biological Sciences (ISB), Bertrand Séraphin, director of the Institute of Data sources : Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) and Sarah Cianferani, Ressources CNRS Alsace/DRH | Recherche données SCI Expanded (moyenne 2016-2017) - CPIC-S (Clarivate Analytics) - Traitement CNRS/SAP2S et INIST head of the Laboratory of Bioorganic Mass Spectrometry at the Hubert-Curien Financement CNRS Alsace/SFC/SRH | Implantation CNRS Alsace/STL | Valorisation CNRS Alsace/SPV multidisciplinary research institute (IPHC). © N. Busser 2 2018 A YEAR AT THE CNRS IN ALSACE 3 PRICES AND DISTINCTIONS Prix Fondation Unistra-Ourisson Cercle Gutenberg Raphaël Côte - IRMA highlights Thomas Hermans - ISIS Albert Weixbaumer - IGBMC SCIENTIFIC AND INSTITUTIONAL Prix Fondation de l’Institut de France Michel Barrot - INCI Prix de la Fondation Unité-Guerra-Paul-Beaudoin-Lambrecht-Maïano CYRCÉ IS 10 YEARS OLD! Damian Brotbek - IRMA The cyclotron provides researchers and clinicians with radioisotopes-tracers used for molecular Prix Charles-Louis de Saulses de Freycinet monitoring, medical diagnosis and so forth.