The BioFunctional Chemistry (BFC) team is co-headed by Dr Alain Wagner (DR, CNRS) and Dr Guilhem Chaubet (CR CNRS) and is part of the Fondation Jean-Marie Lehn and the Institut du Médicament de Strasbourg. We work in the broad field of chemical biology, with a strong interest in the development of chemical responses to biological challenges. Our research is mainly centered on three axes:
- Bio-selective chemical reactions, for the site-selective modification of proteins and nucleic acids to develop bioconjugates for the controlled delivery of drugs. For that purpose, we develop new reactions and reagents, working mainly with antibodies for applications in oncology.
- In vivo chemistry, to uncover the rules that guide chemical reactions in complex biological media, taking into account reagent transport, bio-distribution and pharmacokinetics. It opens new opportunities toward alternative therapeutic approaches via in vivo modification of biotics (e.g., metabolites) or xenobiotics (e.g. drugs, imaging agents).
- Single-cell analysis, to create novel capture systems for various biomolecules. Through the development of innovative microfluidics technologies, we cover advanced multi-omics approaches (i.e. transcriptomics, proteomics, secretomics, surfaceomics) on single cells. This technology provides a unique insight into biological processes such as cancer heterogeneity and cellular differentiation.
Several results and progresses of our team have led to the creation of start-up companies, the most recent being Syndivia and Microomix. We have several ongoing collaborations with chemists, biologists and mass spectrometry experts – some of the results generated in these projects can be found on our Publication page.