HCS Pharma is very pleased to participate to “Building Biology in 3D” symposium of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), in Cambridge, United Kingdom 20-21 April 2023. Veronique De Conto, our project leader in in vitro pharmacology will present two digital posters about the use of BIOMIMESYS® hydroscaffold, Read more…
The Brain Week is an international event organized simultaneously in about 100 countries and more than 120 cities in France. Its aim is to raise public awareness of the importance of brain research. It is an opportunity for many researchers to meet the public and share with them the advances Read more…
The congress of European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) took place from 21st to 25th November 2022. This congress is focus on the alternative methods to animal testing, including both in silico and in vitro modeling. After a nice opening ceremony with a flamenco show, the scientific program begun Read more…
Our Project Leader in in vitro pharmacology Méryl Roudaut will present his presentation entitled “A single procedure to generate functional hiPSCs-derived liver organoids – Towards an innovative tools suitable for drug screening” during the session: Early Stage Researcher Session I (Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022). Abstract #165: We previously showed that Read more…
We are pleased to participate to the 21st International Congress of the European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV 2022), which will take place in Barcelona-Sitges, Spain, from 21st to 25th November 2022. Our project Leader in in vitro pharmacology Véronique De Conto will present her poster entitled “In vitro microenvironment modifies the neurotoxic Read more…
This is the end of the 6-month internship of Natacha in HCS Pharma, about the microenvironment modifications in Parkinson’s disease. Indeed, in vivo studies in the literature showed that the neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease involved Extracellular Matrix (ECM) modifications, including an increase in some components like collagen and a Read more…
The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) forum 2022 took place in Paris, from 9 to 15 July. This event gathers nearly 8,000 neuroscientists from 92 countries. Twenty-two plenary and special lectures were given in 8 conferences room, about various topics in neurosciences, like brain imaging methods, brain development (synapse Read more…
Our project leader in in vitro pharmacology Veronique De Conto will be present to the Federation of European Neurosciences Societies (FENS) congress, from 9 to 13 July in Paris. She will present a poster about the importance of microenvironment in cerebral in vitro models for phenotypic screening, in the frame Read more…
Elodie Vandenhaute (our project director), Véronique De Conto (our project leader in in vitro pharmacology) and Natacha Perrin (our trainee in neurosciences) were present at the annual SCMC (Société Cerveau et Maladies Cérébrovasculaires – The French Brain and Cerebrovascular Diseases Society) congress, which took place on the 16th of June Read more…
We are pleased to welcome Natacha Perrin in our laboratory for a 6-month internship. Natacha is currently in last year of engineering school in Polytech Clermont. This year, in parallel of her initial formation, she also did a double degree in pharmacy. During her studies, she had the opportunity to Read more…
Yesterday, the 11th of April, was the World Parkinson’s Day. On this occasion, HCS pharma would like to inform you about this disease and its work for new drug discovery. What is Parkinson’s disease? It is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease. It is attributed to a Read more…
About 90% of drug candidates fail in clinical trials, for efficacy- and toxicity-related reasons, which often involve the Central Nervous System (CNS). This high failure rate highlights a lack of relevance in experimental models used upstream, including human in vitro models. Indeed, they do not take into account the complexity Read more…
2022 is beginning, but 2021 ended in the most beautiful way… with Véronique De Conto‘s PhD defense. She successfully defended her PhD thesis about the importance of the microenvironment in cerebral in vitro models for phenotypic screening. We had the privilege to maintain the PhD defense on-site, even if one member Read more…
It is our pleasure to announce that the article of our PhD Student Véronique De Conto has been published in Toxicology in vitro journal. This work comes from a collaboration between HCS Pharma and Inserm Unit “Degenerative & vascular cognitive disorders”. This article highlight the importance to consider carefully the Read more…
In the brain, we have about 100 billion of neurons but they represent only 10 to 50% of the total cells (von Bartheld et al., 2016). Indeed, glial cells, including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia are also essential to the physiological functions of the brain. Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the secondary Read more…
Ask for high quality link by putting your email below There is a 90% failure in clinical trials, due to efficacy and safety issues, which frequently concerns the central nervous system. That points a lack of relevance of preclinical models used upstream. In this frame, the aim of this study Read more…
The international NeuroFrance congress will take place May, 19, 20 and 21th 2021 (virtual meeting). On this occasion, our PhD student Véronique De Conto will present these works in a poster about the importance of matricial and cellular microenvironment for drug discovery in Parkinson’s disease (summary below). Feel free to Read more…
The pharmaceutical industries face to a major issue, which is a very high failure rate in drug discovery, with 90% of failure in clinical trials. The central nervous system is particularly concerned, with an involvement in 30% of safety failure in clinical trials, but only in 7% in preclinical trials Read more…
Soria et al. has published this year an interesting study about the modification leading by synucleopathy on the nanoscale organization and diffusivity of the extracellular space, through hyaluronan remodeling. Indeed the extracellular space (ECS), composed by the interstitial fluid and the extracellular matrix (ECM), plays several roles in health and Read more…
Parkinson’s disease affects more than 6 million people worldwide. This neurodegenerative disease is characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, with intracellular accumulation of alpha-synuclein aggregates known as Lewi bodies. This neuronal loss leads to a decrease in the neurotransmitter dopamine that cause mainly Read more…
There are 90% of failure in clinical trials, mainly due to safety and efficiency issues. In particular, the central nervous system is involved in 34% of failure in clinical trials, but only in 7% of failure in preclinical trials (Cook et al., 2014). That points a lack of relevance in Read more…
The human brain contains approximately 86 billon neurons of different types, distributed and organized in different areas ; their functions vary according to the neuron type and its localization within the brain. However, the neuronal function also depends on its microenvironment, which is composed of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and Read more…
The brain extracellular matrix (ECM) has a specific composition. Contrary to other organs, this ECM contains a low level of fibrous proteins, like collagen and fibronectin. Actually it is mainly composed of proteoglycans, which are composed of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) covalently bound to a core protein. Hayluronic acid (HA), a Read more…