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Paris Brain Institute

Overview

The Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM) is a non-profit neuroscience research foundation established in 2010 at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris. Co-governed by Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Inserm, and AP-HP, it brings together more than 800 researchers and clinicians on a single site combining fundamental research, clinical neurology, and translational science. Research is organised around five scientific axes: neurodegenerative diseases, glial disorders and repair, neuronal excitability, cognition and emotion, and clinical translation. The institute operates 12 core technological platforms shared across research teams. Originally named Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, it was renamed Paris Brain Institute in 2020.

Core Facilities

ICM operates 12 core technological platforms supporting its research teams and open to external academic and industrial collaborators:

  • Banque ADN et Cellules is a neurological-disease biological resource centre banking DNA, RNA, cells, CSF, plasma, and iPSCs, operating under the Code de la Sante Publique biobank framework, ISO 20387 certified, and a contributing node of the BBMRI-ERIC European biobank network.
  • CENIR (Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche) is ICM’s main in vivo human neuroimaging facility, operating a 7T MRI, two 3T MRI scanners, a simultaneous PET-MRI, a 306-channel MEG system, high-density EEG, and TMS. It is a member of the CATI multicentre neuroimaging network and is part of the France Life Imaging national network.
  • The Data Analysis Core (DAC) provides bioinformatics, data management, and statistical analysis, implementing FAIR Principles across ICM workflows. It is ICM’s primary interface with national open science infrastructure as a member of IFB and a participant in the MUDIS4LS initiative, and it participates in the GT-GeDeM microscopy data-management working group, INCF, and GFRN working groups.
  • ePHYS provides preclinical electrophysiology (patch-clamp, MEA, Neuropixels in vivo recording, video-EEG).
  • HISTOMICS covers histology, neuropathology, and spatial transcriptomics (10x Visium, Xenium, NanoString GeoMx).
  • ICM.Quant provides quantitative cellular and molecular microscopy (widefield, confocal, STED, light-sheet, TEM). It belongs to the Sorbonne University LUMIC imaging network and participates in national microscopy networks (RT-MFM, RIME, GDR ImaBio, and the French microscopy society).
  • ICV handles cell engineering and vectorology (iPSC generation; AAV, lentivirus, and adenovirus vector production).
  • iGenSeq provides next-generation sequencing (whole-genome, whole-exome, bulk and single-cell RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, long-read), is part of the France Génomique national network, and has carried the IBiSA national platform label since 2021.
  • PhénoParc is the preclinical exploration platform, providing in vivo rodent models, behavioural testing, and small-animal phenotyping.
  • PRISME covers behavioural phenotyping and the study of human cognition and behaviour.
  • The Proteomics Core Facility provides advanced protein analysis, covering recombinant protein production, multiplexed immunodetection, and sample preparation for mass spectrometry, with MALDI and LC-MS/MS access through a collaboration with ESPCI Paris and the ICAN omics platforms.
  • The RnD Unit (F.P.Journe Charity Fund) handles custom scientific instrumentation design and fabrication.

Clinical Research Infrastructure

ICM’s translational clinical research is organised through iCRIN (Infrastructure for Clinical Research in Neurosciences), a programme launched in 2019 around 13 disease-area themes that bridges ICM research teams with the AP-HP DMU Neurosciences clinical services at Pitié-Salpêtrière. iCRIN builds cohorts, develops biomarkers, and designs proof-of-concept studies, drawing on ICM’s CENIR, Banque ADN et Cellules, and DAC platforms and using the co-located CIC Neurosciences (Inserm CIC-1422) as its operational backbone for trial conduct and regulatory support.

Connections

  • governedBy: Sorbonne Universite
  • governedBy: AP-HP
  • isPartOf: NeurATRIS
  • isPartOf: France Life Imaging (via the CENIR neuroimaging platform)
  • isPartOf: France Génomique (via the iGENSEQ sequencing platform)
  • isPartOf: IFB (via the Data Analysis Core)
  • isPartOf: MUDIS4LS (via the Data Analysis Core)
  • relatedTo: BBMRI-ERIC (the ICM biobank is a contributing node)
  • endorsedBy: IBiSA (the iGenSeq sequencing platform has carried the IBiSA national platform label since 2021)
  • relatedTo: CATI (CATI is headquartered at CEA NeuroSpin in Saclay and hosts a node at ICM)
  • relatedTo: CIC Neurosciences (co-located Inserm/AP-HP clinical trials platform supporting ICM translational research)
  • relatedTo: EBRAINS
  • registeredIn: NCBI GEO (ICM sequencing data from publications is deposited here)
  • memberOf: CURE-ND
  • isPartOf: EEG101

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