Francois Gaascht

• PhD
• Research Associate at University of Minnesota

Inspired by the properties of natural protein-based biomaterials, protein nanomaterials are increasingly designed with natural or engineered peptides, or with protein building blocks. Very few examples describe the design of functional protein-based materials for biotechnological applications that can be readily manufactured, are amenable to functi...

The presence of endophytes promotes the biosynthesis of secondary plant metabolites. In this study, endophytic fungi were isolated from Schinus terebinthifolius to investigate their diversity and antimicrobial activity. A total of 272 endophytic fungi was obtained. These belonged to nine different genera: Alternaria, Colletotrichum, Diaporthe, Epic...

Edible mushrooms are an important source of nutraceuticals and for the discovery of bioactive metabolites as pharmaceuticals. In this work, the OSMAC (One Strain, Many Active Compounds) approach was used to isolate two new compounds (1 and 2) along with seven known compounds (3-9) from a mycelial culture of a unique North American edible mushroom H...

Coffee is the second most popular beverage in the world after water with a consumption of approximately two billion cups per day. Due to its low cost and ease of preparation, it is consumed in almost all countries and by all social classes of the population through different modes of preparation. Despites its simple appearance, a cup of coffee is i...

Plumbagin is a plant naphtoquinone exerting anti-cancer properties including apoptotic cell death induction and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this study was to elucidate parameters explaining the differential leukemia cell sensitivity towards this compound. Among several leukemia cell lines, U937 monocytic leukemia cells a...

Le cancer est un problème majeur de santé public avec une estimation de plus de 1,3 millions de décès en Europe pour l'année 2013. La recrudescence de résistances vis-à-vis des traitements chimio-thérapeutiques conduit à la recherche de nouvelles substances actives, notamment au sein d'organismes naturels, qui représentent une source infinie de mol...

Chemoprevention uses natural or synthetic molecules without toxic effects to prevent and/or block emergence and development of diseases including cancer. Many of these natural molecules modulate mitogenic signals involved in cell survival, apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, angiogenesis, or on processes involved in the development of metastases occu...

Two new metabolites, embellicines A and B (1 and 2), were isolated from the EtOAc extract of the fungus Embellisia eureka, an endophyte of the Moroccan plant Cladanthus arabicus (Asteraceae). The structures of these new compounds were determined on the basis of extensive one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy as well as by high-resolution mass s...

Aurones [2-benzylidenebenzofuran-3(2H)-ones] are either natural or synthetic compounds, belonging to the flavonoid family. They are isomeric to flavones and provide a bright yellow color to the plants in which they occur. Today, a literature survey indicates that the related flavonoids have been studied not only for their physiological properties a...

Next meetings Redox regulation—Natural compounds as regulators of inflammation signaling (A RedCat—satellite meeting to Natural Compounds 2012)—January 24–26, 2012. Natural compounds 2012—Regulators of cell signaling pathways and novel therapeutic tools—January 26–28, 2012. Under the patronage of Corena, a network aiming to create an internatio...

The aberrant activation of the wingless (Wnt) signaling pathway is a key element involved in carcinogenesis as Wnt regulates a variety of cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, survival, apoptosis and cell motility. Upon Wnt receptor activation, the canonical "Wnt/beta-catenin" as well as the non canonical "Wnt/planar cell pol...

Activation of the Wingless (Wnt)/ß-catenin signaling pathway contributes to prostate tumorigenesis and metastasis. Depending of the stage of prostate cancer development, current drug therapies are of limited efficiency, so that prevention with natural compounds appears as an attractive strategy especially due to the slow progressive development of...

Cardiac steroids are used to treat various diseases including congestive heart failure and cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-leukemic activity of UNBS1450, a hemi-synthetic cardenolide belonging to the cardiac steroid glycoside family. Here, we report that, at low nanomolar concentrations, UNBS1450 induces apoptotic cell dea...

A vec 30 % de décès en 2006 (155 000 morts), le cancer apparaît comme la première cause de décès en France (source : CépiDc, Inserm). On estime qu'environ 320 000 nouveaux cas de cancer sont diagnostiqués chaque année (source : Institut de veille sanitaire). Les causes de développement d'un cancer sont nombreuses et très variées. Il peut s'agir de...

The long latency and high incidence of prostate carcinogenesis provides the opportunity to intervene with chemoprevention in order to prevent or eradicate prostate malignancies. We present here an overview of the chemopreventive potential of curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a well-known natural compound that exhibits therapeutic promise for prostate c...