Campagne Team Structure, Mechanism and RNA Therapeutics (SMaRT)

The SMaRT lab combines structural biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and cellular biology to study the regulation of RNA splicing. Facing diseases linked to aberrant splicing, it aims to develop RNA-based treatments and innovative therapeutic approaches.

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Home unit: U1212/UMR5320 ARNA - arna.cnrs.fr

The SMaRT laboratory adopts a multi-disciplinary approach by combining structural biology with biochemistry, biophysics, and cell biology to uncover the underlying mechanisms responsible for regulating RNA splicing. Given that a multitude of human diseases stem from aberrant splicing patterns, the SMaRT lab strives to create RNA-based treatments to restore physiological splicing patterns and develops innovative therapeutic approaches.

Team Leader

CAMPAGNE Sébastien
INSERM researcher
+33623507270
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Sébastien Campagne, born in Foix, France in 1983, received his education in biochemistry and biotechnologies at the University of Toulouse. He earned his PhD from the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology, where he was mentored by Prof. Alain Milon and Dr. Virginie Gervais, in 2010. Following a postdoctoral research with Prof. Julia Vorholt at ETH Zürich in 2014, he joined the Institute of Biochemistry at ETH Zurich, working closely with major pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Skyhawk Therapeutics under the guidance of Prof. Frédéric Allain. As of October 2021, he holds the position of INSERM Researcher at the ARNA unit in Bordeaux and in 2023, he was appointed as a group leader at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology in Bordeaux.

In eukaryotes, the nuclear envelope breaks the physical connection between transcription and translation observed in prokaryotes. The nuclear envelope also creates a time and a space for RNA processing, impacting mRNA localization, translation, and decay. During transcription, pre-mRNA undergoes capping, splicing, cleavage, and polyadenylation in the nucleus before being exported to the cytoplasm where it will be translated, stored or degraded. The regulation of RNA processing shapes genetic information and, therefore, gene expression. Altered RNA metabolism has been linked to human inherited diseases and cancers. RNA therapeutics, including mRNA vaccines, siRNA, antisense oligonucleotides, and small molecules, aim to restore physiological RNA processing and gene expression patterns. Our research group aims to investigate the fundamental basis of RNA therapeutics acting on nuclear RNA processing and develop this field of medicinal chemistry.