French professor: Impressed by Iranian researchers

TEHRAN, Sep. 15 (MNA) – Professor Sophie Rousseaux from University of Grenoble, France, says she is impressed to see Iranian researchers flourish. Professor Sophie Roussaux was in Iran to receive the prize of genetics and andrology for submitting the paper titled “Male Genome Programming, Infertility and Cancer” awarded by Royan Institute during 15th Reproductive Biomedicine and 10th Stem Cells Biology & Technology Congress. Dr. Hamid Gourabi, president of Royan Institute, said the institute received 222 research projects from 37 countries, adding that researchers from the US, Iran, China, Italy and Japan presented 29, 22, 17, 15 and 14 papers respectively. Professor described her project to Mehr News. “In the time of differentiation of male germ cells, a very specific reorganization occurs in the human genome. The changes wrought leads to protamine condensation in mature sperm cells in the form of repackaging genome in spermatocyte,” said the professor, “this is crucial in protecting man’s genome outside the body and for accelerated activity of sperm genome after fertilization.” “Although this is an important step for successful reproduction, however, the detailed information about its molecular base lacks,” Rousseaux told Mehr News. “The research sought to identify molecular factors effective on genome programming in men’s genome and to describe its functions; to do so, we used a combination of strategies such as developing laboratory models , molecular methods, male germ cell genome analysis, and using modern techniques, that is, new generation of sequencing, etc.,” she detailed on the research. Asked about Iranian researchers, Professor Rousseaux told Mehr News that she had heard about unique performance of the Iranians, but “I was not familiar with their career closely.” “When I travelled to Iran, I was impressed to see the scope of their activities in research,” she described her first meeting, “I had heard about the brilliant talents of Iranian students, since two of such students work closely with me in the laboratory, which I tell you that are among my most brilliant students. Their hard work and intelligence are exemplary,” she added. She also appreciated Royan Institute research works to provide better understanding of the stem cells and the related fields.