Neurotoxicity & Development

The general theme of the team is developed at INEM since 2010. It focuses on the vulnerability of the nervous system to environmental factors during development, particularly following exposure to xenobiotics (pesticides, toxins, etc.) at very low doses and chronically during the gestation period and early postnatal development.

These fundamental principles are the basis of Barker's hypothesis known as the DOHaD (Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases) approach. According to this concept, susceptibility to certain diseases in adults may be derived from in utero and neonatal environmental exposures.

The study of alterations induced by these exposures is approached at the level of physiological, adaptive or pathological responses, but also at the level of cellular and molecular responses. The methodologies used are multidisciplinary since they integrate approaches in cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, histology, transcriptomics, imaging, post-natal and adult behavioral analyses, and integrated physiology.

Our research aims at linking the nature of the observed biological responses to the molecular and/or cellular targets affected by these toxic exposures, and thus at understanding fundamental mechanisms potentially involved in the development of pathologies. Thus, neuroinflammation and pulmonary inflammation processes (when this route of exposure is involved) are also analyzed.