Congratulations to Dr Leïla Perié, winner of an ERC Consolidator Grant

Myeloid cells play a central role in organizing the immune response and destroying pathogens. However, they are short-lived and require regulated production. Fluctuations in these cells can have consequences for health, increasing the risk of infection or autoimmune disease. 

To better understand these variations and their impact, Dr. Leïla Perié* is investigating the dynamics of myeloid cell production during immune responses. But how? Quite simply by counting their cell divisions. This is the aim of the "Dynamyelo" project, supported by the European Research Council via en ERC Consolidator Grant worth €2 million over 5 years. 

We believe that at least 14 divisions are required to produce myeloid cells from hematopoietic stem cells**. However, no method allows us to measure more than ten divisions in vivo

explains Dr. Leïla Perié

Using an innovative approach, Dr. Leïla Perié hopes to quantify precisely the number of divisions required to generate these myeloid cells.

This breakthrough could open up new possibilities for modulating the production of these cells, which are essential to the immune system, and particularly so in the case of cancer. 

* Head of the Quantitative Immuno-hematology team (CNRS UMR168 / Sorbonne Université), scientific co-director of the Custom Single Cell Omics platform (CurieCoreTech) and co-coordinator of the Single Cell Initiative

** Stem cells present in bone marrow and responsible for the production of all type of blood cells in the human body