Who are we ?
The research unit PaThLiv is composed of two scientific teams :
- “Hepatitis Viruses and Liver Pathogenesis” (HeLiP)
- “Epigenetics, Microenvironment and Liver Diseases” (EpiLiv).
A research Support team composed of 6 technicians and engineers providing administrative, financial, and logistics support the daily life activities of the research unit is also part of the lab.
Lab composition
The research unit is built on 13 established scientists including virologists, molecular and cellular biologists, and clinical scientists (hepatologists and liver surgeons). The research unit benefits from already established and longstanding links with the Lyon Universitary Hospital (the Hepatology Service, the Liver Surgery Service, the ICU, and the Clinical Research Center (CRC)). 19 clinicians and surgeons are already affiliated to the two teams of the research unit.
The PaThLiv unit acts synergistically with the newly created Hepatology Institute, IHU EVEREST.
The PaThLiv unit is led by Prof Zoulim, while the Team HeLiP will be under the leadership of Dr Testoni and deputy head Prof Zoulim and the Team EpiLiv will be under the direction of Prof Levrero and deputy head Dr Zeisel.
Our scientific objectives
Our scientific vision is to address the most relevant challenges, through high-technology platforms and multidisciplinary expertise, with the following aims:
- Identification of novel cure therapies for CHB and CHD;
- Comprehensive blueprint profiling and therapeutic innovation for patients with metabolic liver diseases,
- Development of new approaches for HCC profiling to accompany the development of combination therapies and enable treatment personalization,
- Identification of biomarkers of disease progression in ESLD (including mainly ALD) to improve outcomes and access to transplantation,
- Improving liver graft quality through organ perfusion.
These objectives are tightly linked to those of the IHU EVEREST, whose long-term ambition is to implement an affordable and sustainable precision medicine for all patients with Chronic Liver Disease (CLD).
This will be based on a privileged access to:
- Valuable patient samples: serum, PBMC, liver biopsy, fine needle aspirate (FNA), precision cut liver slices (PCLS), and experimental samples from innovative cell culture systems and preclinical mouse models;
- Transcriptomic studies [bulk RNA-Seq and scRNA-Seq];
- Immunophenotyping;
- Single cell secretome and single cell intracellular proteome;
- Digital spatial profiling;
- Liver spatial multi-omics imaging and biomarkers quantification by mass spectrometry;
- Gut-, liver- and blood microbiota;
- Pharmacological perturbation studies;
- Circulating miR profiling.
