PAnTher

PAnTher lab was initially specialized in veterinary pathology and nationally recognized for its expertise in animal models of pathology. For more than 10 years, PAnTher’s research, expertise and training activities focused on the understanding of rare genetic diseases affecting the muscle and nervous system and on the development of gene and cell-based therapeutic strategies in model animals for these diseases.

Leaning on this robust background PAnTher currently develops integrated multidisciplinary approaches from gene to animal to characterize two biological systems - the muscle and the nervous system - and their interface, the neuromuscular junction. The study of cell/agent and microenvironment interactions during muscle remodeling and neurodegeneration in in vitro and in vivo models allows us:

• to widen our understanding of the biology of myogenic progenitors and motor neurons;
• to characterize the muscle and nervous tissue responses to metabolic (lysosomal storage disease) or structural (muscular dystrophy or spinal muscular atrophy) dysfunction;
• to produce key knowledge for the development of preventive or therapeutic strategies.

Our research and training activities importantly rely on the expertise of our cutting-edge technological platform, APEX, that provides services in cell and tissue bio-imaging and comparative pathology allowing an integrative understanding of diseases biology for the benefit of both human and animal health.