The UMR-S 1250 is a mixed Unit, under the administrative supervision of Inserm and the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), which was created in January 2018. It is a multidisciplinary team involving researchers, teacher-researchers in cell biology, histology, bacteriology, informatics, physiology, and pneumology as well as clinicians from the University Hospital of Reims.

Our team is interested in identifying and characterizing the mechanisms involved in the genesis of respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and airway cancers. More specifically, the project focuses on the study of airway epithelial cell plasticity, such as transdifferentiation and dedifferentiation. The understanding of these mechanisms is an important issue to restore a normal, differentiated, and functional epithelium.

The main objectives are to:

• Improve the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the remodeling of the respiratory epithelium associated with the severity of respiratory pathologies,
• Validate new biomarkers that are pointing to new patient phenotypes for better management,
• Study the virulence mechanisms in bacteria with increased pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance in pulmonary superinfections of chronic respiratory diseases,
• Establish new therapeutic strategies to prevent or correct the remodeling of the respiratory epithelium.