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                Zebrafish is now recognized as an emergent model for many human and animal infectious diseases. Beyond its remarkable optical transparency, this small vertebrate provides an ideal, cheap model to support high content screenings of therapeutic molecules for toxicity, and effectiveness. So far, zebrafish larvae constitute an innovative model for study of fish (rhabdoviruses, …) and human viruses pathogenesis and antiviral responses (influenza, herpes, rhabdovirus and alphavirus infections). In close collaboration with Pasteur Institute, we contributed to the establishment of these models and characterized the innate antiviral immunity regarding fish specific aspects and identifying the hallmarks of conserved immune response among vertebrates. We further developed tools for the study of pathogen invasion and antiviral immune response (at the cytokine and cellular level) in real-time providing in vivo models suitable for diverse emergent viruses.

                 Attached to the Virology and Molecular Immunology (VIM) unit, our platform benefits from a strong local expertise in (fish) virology and immunology and accessibility to L2/L3 laboratories. We develop innovative strategies to generate zebrafish models for infectious diseases, using state-of-the-art microscopy approaches (2-photon imaging, clearing methods, real time imaging of the whole organism). Collaborations can be established to evaluate candidate molecules in advanced screening assays on relevant zebrafish lines for toxicity (craniofacial deformation, neurotoxicity, reproductive system disorders, inflammation), and/or bioactivity (anti-inflammatory effect, anti-infectious …).

                 Services can be provided to :

• establish novel infectious models (microinjection- infectious disease characterization: clinical signs, survival curve)
• study pathogen invasion (tracking of fluorescent pathogen, comparison of virus mutants, ....)
• characterize host-pathogen interactions (inflammatory responses: cell dynamic, cytokines modulation,…)
• evaluate candidate molecules in advanced screening assays.

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