The extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly and functions are mediated by protein-protein and protein-glycosaminoglycan interactions. We have developed a roadmap to build ECM interactomes in order to identify new functions of ECM proteins and glycosaminoglycans, and to determine how the ECM networks are rewired in diseases. It includes the identification of interactions by label-free techniques, and the determination of their kinetics, affinity (for interaction ranking), and binding sites. Tissue-specific networks based on expression and proteomics data are created with the iNavigator of MatrixDB, the interaction database we developed. The ultimate goal is to build a comprehensive 3D ECM interactome.
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Sylvie Ricard-Blum is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Lyon (France), where she is the coordinator of the Master programme in Biochemistry and deputy director of the Interdisciplinary Sciences – Health doctoral school. She is Vice-President of the International Society for Matrix Biology, a member of the steering committee of the HUPO-Proteomics Standard Initiative (HUPO-PSI), and co-chair of the HUPO-PSI Molecular Interaction group. She is editor of HUPO-PSI and associate editor of the Journal Matrix Biology.
She received her PhD in Biochemistry in 1986 and her accreditation to supervise research in 1993, both from the University of Lyon. She worked in Pasteur Institute in Lyon from 1986 to 1997, in the Institute of Structural Biology in Grenoble from 1998 to 2004, and was appointed full Professor at the University of Lyon in 2004.
Her team studies structure-interaction-function relationships of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and glycosaminoglycans by combining biochemistry, structural biology, bioinformatics, and systems biology. Her team has identified two hundred new protein-protein and protein-glycosaminoglycan interactions by label-free optical techniques, developed a roadmap to build and contextualize ECM interactomes with a focus on angiogenesis, Alzheimer’s disease and host-pathogen interactions, and created an interaction database MatrixDB (matrixdb.univ-lyon1.fr) focused on the ECM.