Section: Overall Objectives

Scientific context and motivations

Light microscopy, especially fluorescence microscopy, has taken a prominent role in life science research due to its ability to investigate the 3D interior of cells and organisms. It enables to visualize, in vitro and in vivo, particular biomolecules and proteins (gene expression) with high specificity through fluorescent labeling (GFP - Green Fluorescence Protein probes) both at the microscopic and nanoscopic scales. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of life are very complex and driven by multimolecular interactions: mitotic spindle, cell signaling complexes, intracellular transport, cell morphogenesis and motility... A dynamical quantitative and integrated description of molecular interactions and coordination within macromolecular complexes at different scales appears essential today for the global understanding of live mechanisms. A long-term research will consist in inferring the relationships between the dynamics of macromolecules and their functions. This constitutes one of the challenges of modern biology. The proposed mathematical models and algorithms are mainly developed to identify molecular processes in fundamental biology but they have also a strong potential for applications in biotechnology and medicine: disease diagnosis, detection of genomic instabilities, deterioration of cell cycle, epigenetic mechanisms and cancer prevention.