The power of stem cells
The power of stem cells

Le pouvoir des cellules souches

Annie Ladoux, chercheur à l’Inserm à l'iBV dans l’équipe de Christian Dani nous emmène dans le monde des cellules souches

Les cellules souches sont à l’origine de toutes formes de vie et sont présentes dans tous les organismes pluricellulaires. Chez l’homme, il existe plusieurs types de cellules souches. Mais quelle est la différence entre les cellules souches embryonnaires et adultes ? Quelles sont leurs propriétés ? Possèdent-elles certaines caractéristiques en commun ? Quels sont leurs rôles respectifs ? Comment utiliser leur potentiel en thérapie cellulaire ?

C’est au travers des yeux d’un enfant lors d’une visite dans un laboratoire de recherche, que nous sommes invités à découvrir et visualiser les différents types de cellules souches en microscopie. A l’aide d’un casque de réalité virtuelle, l’enfant va pouvoir dialoguer avec elles pour trouver les réponses à ces questions.


The power of stem cells

Annie Ladoux, Inserm researcher at iBV in Christian Dani's team brings us into the world of stem cells

Stem cells sustain all forms of development and they are present in all the pluricellular organisms. Different types of stem cells are encountered in humans. But what are the differences between embryonic and adult stem cells? What are their properties? Do they share some features? Do they play similar or distinct roles? Is it possible to use them for cellular therapies?

This movie invites us to follow a child visiting a research lab to discover the microscopic aspect of different types of stem cells. A virtual reality headsed will allow him to interact with them and to get answers to these questions.


The movie was produced thanks to contributions from Annie Ladoux (Inserm researcher; iBV), Camilia Jallab (Clinical researcher and former Université Côte d’Azur student) and Simon Lachambre (engineer of the PRISM platform; iBV), to the involvement of Christian Dani's iBV team “Stem cells and differentiation”.

Proofreading: Bernard Binetruy (Inserm researcher)
Director: Margo Production
Music: AudioGreen
Images: Inserm / CNRS / Université Côte d'Azur

20M€ for InnoSkel, a new start-up launched by Elvire Gouze at iBV

The 'institut de Biologie Valrose' (iBV) is very proud to announce the launch of InnoSkel, a new start-up led by Elvire Gouze, Group Leader at iBV since 2016 (

Elvire is an expert scientist in skeletal disorders. She has made seminal contributions and she has always been highly motivated by studies that have the potential to directly impact human disease. Elvire is also a visionary serial entrepreneur: in 2014 she was the scientific director of TherAchon, a company that develops a cure for achondroplasia that was acquired for $810 millions by the world's premier pharmaceutical company Pfizer in mid 2019. Now, she wants to expand and develop a new pipeline to cure type 2 collagenopathies, the second leading cause of dwarfism worldwide. For this purpose, Elvire just founded InnoSkel, a platform biotech company for which she raised $20M in a Series A financing round. Definitely, Elvire likes to push the limits !

Our vision at iBV is to bridge basic and clinical sciences to foster our understanding of the most important principles of Biology and transfer our knowledge to the clinic. To this goal, iBV has developed an in-house bio-incubator to allow iBV researchers turn their innovative ideas into reality, with Elvire leading the way.

Congratulations Elvire for a successful new venture !

We asked Elvire to tell us about her motivations and say few words about how InnoSkel came to reality?

Elvire: " My research is always patient centred and I am very happy to have been able to develop these research programs within the iBV. Our environment is fostering innovation and I hope this will be followed by numerous biotech company creations that can be hosted in the iBV bioincubator!”


Click here to read the press release