Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon

The first École normale supérieure (ENS) was created in France by the National Convention in 1794 and reopened in 1810 by Napoleon. Inaugurated in 1987 by decree, the ENS Lyon has 10 internationally-renowned research laboratories covering nearly all exact sciences. These laboratories maintain close links to several national research organizations (CNRS, INRA, INSERM, INRIA) and the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon. They cover a wide range of skills in particularly innovative fields that are likely to be of interest to industry: biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, and geosciences. Laboratories at the ENS Lyon engage in significant international activity, particularly in important European programs. Every year the ENS receives funding from about a hundred research contracts, many of which are with the European Union. The ENS Lyon is a member of CREALYS, a high tech business start-up structure in the Rhône-Alpes region and plays an active part in the Science and Technology Cluster of the Lyon-Gerland district (www.techlyon.prd.fr & www.lyon-sciences.prd.fr). The major technical facilities of ENS are: high performance computing center (www.psmn.ens-lyon.fr); facility in breeding, housing, and characterization of murine strains (http://www.ifr128.prd.fr/PBES.htm); imaging and microscopy facility (http://www.ifr128.prd.fr/PLATIM); proteomic facility.

The Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Biology (LBMC) is undertaking research aimed at clarifying the molecular basis for the functioning and the fate of cells (division, proliferation, apoptosis, senescence, differentiation). Each one of its 15 teams tries to integrate various aspects related to signalization, compartmentalization, traffic as well as genetic and epigenetic regulation. To this end, various experimental systems are used, ranging from yeast to man. The essential raison d’être of the laboratory is to create a continuum of research in the field of molecular and cell biology, starting from the elucidation the fundamental mechanisms of cell function to the comprehension of the dysfunctions encountered in human pathology. The aim of the newly created, conjointly by ENS and CNRS, Laboratory Joliot Curie – LJC (http://www.ens-lyon.fr/Joliot-Curie/) is to favor the development of original approaches towards relevant biological objects and problems by researchers from other disciplines. LJC is designed as an incubator of multidisciplinary scientific projects that need competences in biology, experimental and theoretical physics and bioinformatics. The main topics of LJC lab is chromatin structure and dynamics. The technical equipment of LJC includes: cell culture rooms, HPLC/FPLC, atomic force microscopy, magnetic tweezers, micro calorimeter, surface plasmon microscopy, pulsed Nd:YAG laser coupled to custom designed stop-flow.