Brahim NAIT OUMESMAR

Biography

Brahim Nait Oumesmar is Research Director at Inserm, and Co-Director of the team "Myelin Plasticity and Regeneration" at Paris Brain Institute). He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Sorbonne University in 1997, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Developmental Neurobiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, NY, USA). Brahim Nait Oumesmar is a member of the executive committee of NeurATRIS, coordinator of the IHU research programmes on multiple sclerosis at the Institut du Cerveau, and elected president of the French Club of Glial Cells. He is also a member of several scientific councils and an expert for several funding agencies, including ERC, MRC, Biological Sciences Research Council (UK), ANR and international multiple sclerosis societies. Brahim Nait Oumesmar has an internationally recognized expertise in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of myelination and remyelination in the central nervous system. He has been instrumental in the mechanisms of myelin regeneration and the development of experimental therapies to promote remyelination in multiple sclerosis and myelin-related diseases. His laboratory has strong expertise in glial cell cultures, molecular biology, oligodendrocyte differentiation and regeneration, and experimental models of myelin and multiple sclerosis diseases.

Research

Brahim Nait Oumesmar's research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of myelination and regeneration of myelin (also called remyelination) in the central nervous system, with the main objective of understanding why remyelination fails in multiple sclerosis (MS) and developing new therapeutics to improve this regeneration process in MS and myelin-related diseases. His group's main interests are:

• The function of axoglial interactions in (re)-myelination.
• The development of pharmacological strategies for myelin regeneration, using various preclinical models of MS and myelin-related diseases,
• Neuropathology of MS lesions.
  Interests: multiple sclerosis, myelin, remyelination, oligodendrocytes, preclinical models.

Main publications

• Aït Amiri S, Deboux C, Soualmia F, Chaaya N, Louet M, Duplus E, Betuing S, Nait-Oumesmar B*, Masurier N*, El Amri C* (2021) Identification of First-in-Class Inhibitors of Kallikrein-Related Peptidase 6 That Promote Oligodendrocyte Differentiation. J. Med. Chem. 64(9): 10.1021/acs (*co-last authors)
• Maas DA, Eijsink VD, Spoelder M, van Hulten JA, De Weerd P, Homberg JR, Vallès A, Nait-Oumesmar B*, Martens GJM* (2020) Interneuron hypomyelination is associated with cognitive inflexibility in a rat model of schizophrenia. Nature Communications 11(1):2329 (*co-last authors)
• Ortiz FC, Habermacher C, Graciarena M, Houry PY, Nishiyama A, Nait Oumesmar B, Angulo MC (2019) Neuronal activity in vivo enhances functional myelin repair. JCI Insight 5(9):e123434.
  Fauveau M, Wilmet B, Deboux C, Benardais K, Bachelin C, Temporão AC, Kerninon C, Nait-Oumesmar B (2018) SOX17 transcription factor negatively regulates oligodendrocyte precursor cell differentiation. Glia 66:2221-2232.
• Wegener A, Deboux C, Bachelin C, Frah M, Kerninon C, Seilhean D, Weider M, Wegner M, Nait-Oumesmar B. Gain of Olig2 function in oligodendrocyte progenitors promotes remyelination. Brain. 2015 Jan;138(Pt 1):120-35.