The Generative Brain

Hospices Civils de Lyon, neurological hospital laboratory for neurodegenerative pathologies (LBMMS) and BIORAN team

A hospital biology laboratory of the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), the Lyon university hospital, based at the Centre de Biologie et Pathologie Est in Bron next to the Pierre Wertheimer neurological hospital. It sits inside the HCL multi-site medical biology laboratory (LBMMS), which is accredited under ISO 15189, and the HCL test catalogue lists a laboratory called Biopathologie prions at the Groupement Hospitalier Est. Its scientists also belong to the BIORAN biomarker team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center. Since at least 2009 the group has published methods for diagnosing human prion disease: PrPres detection in brain and tonsil, CSF 14-3-3 on an automated platform, and CSF prion protein levels to separate CJD from atypical Alzheimer disease. It co-authors French national surveillance work and supplied characterised sporadic CJD brain material for the 2025 INRAE RT-QuIC strain study. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • The HCL multi-site medical biology and pathology laboratory, abbreviated LBMMS, covers four Lyon hospital groups and holds COFRAC accreditation 8-3442 under NF EN ISO 15189; its Grand Est centre in Bron lists a neurobiology platform.
  • The HCL biobook test catalogue lists a laboratory named Groupement Hospitalier Est - Biopathologie prions, a sector 31-BIOLOGIE PRIONS, and separate neurochemistry and neurological genetics sectors; which individual prion tests are listed was not visible.
  • Paper affiliations place the prion work at the Centre de Biologie et Pathologie Est, 59 boulevard Pinel, Bron, under names that changed over time: Neurobiology Department in 2009, Prion Disease Laboratory and Prion Diseases Diagnosis Laboratory in 2011, Neurochemistry Unit of the Department of Biochemistry in 2015 to 2017, and Neurodegenerative Pathologies, LBMMS, in 2025.
  • BIORAN, the radiopharmaceutical and neurochemical biomarkers team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, is led by Fabien Chauveau and Luc Zimmer and works on assays for aggregated proteins in neurodegenerative disease; its page does not mention prions, but the HCL laboratory scientists list BIORAN as their second affiliation.
  • In 2009 the group reported a streptomycin method to concentrate PrPres that was 100 percent sensitive and specific on 98 human TSE brains and 52 other dementia brains, and found PrPres in tonsil from the two confirmed variant CJD cases among five suspects.
  • In 2011 the laboratory showed that two commercial assays, an ELISA and a western blot, detected PrPsc in brain from 54 affected patients and none of 51 controls, and in tonsil and spleen from variant CJD, and proposed ELISA screening with western blot confirmation.
  • A 2017 study from the Lyon neurochemistry laboratory validated an automated capillary western for CSF 14-3-3 in 268 suspected sporadic CJD patients: sensitivity 93.5 percent against 92.2 percent for classic western blot, specificity 95.3 percent against 84.8 percent, and about 4 hours turnaround instead of 1.5 days.
  • A 2015 JAMA Neurology study led from Lyon found total CSF prion protein lower in CJD and, combined with tau and P-tau181, cut misclassification of atypical Alzheimer disease from 43.5 percent with 14-3-3 alone to 4.3 percent.
  • A Lyon laboratory scientist is a co-author of the 25 year French surveillance report for 1992 to 2016, listed under the Neurochemistry and Neurogenetics Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Lyon University Hospital, and BioRan.
  • For the 2025 INRAE study of the E219K RT-QuIC substrate, Lyon and Paris collaborators supplied MV1, VV2, VV1 and MM2-c sporadic CJD brain samples and a control brain through the national reference centre for unconventional transmissible agents and the national CJD neuropathology network; the work was presented with Lyon co-authors at the 10th French prion study day on 19 June 2025.
  • In 2025 HCL laboratory, neuropathology and neurology staff co-authored with Paris a case report of two E200K genetic CJD patients whose first sign was a demyelinating neuropathy resembling CIDP.
  • The laboratory also works on other neurodegenerative biomarkers: a 2025 CSF alpha-synuclein seed amplification assay with 72.3 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity for Lewy body disease, and international surveys on neurofilament light reporting.
  • A June 2026 preprint with a Lyon co-author used French surveillance data on 2,440 sporadic CJD cases to report four strain specific geographic clusters; it is not peer reviewed.

Timeline

  1. 2009Streptomycin PrPres method for brain and tonsil published from the HCL Groupement Hospitalier Est neurobiology department.
  2. 2011Rapid screening and confirmatory PrPsc assays paper, and a review on molecular diagnosis of human prion disease, published from the HCL prion laboratory.
  3. 2015JAMA Neurology paper on CSF prion protein to separate CJD from atypical Alzheimer disease.
  4. 2017Automated capillary western for CSF 14-3-3 published.
  5. 202325 year French surveillance report with a Lyon co-author published.
  6. 2025E200K neuropathy case report with Paris published.
  7. 2025RT-QuIC strain discrimination talk with Lyon co-authors at the 10th French prion study day.
  8. 2025E219K RT-QuIC paper with Lyon supplied brain samples published.
  9. 2026HCL page for prescribers, linking the biobook catalogue, last updated.
  10. 2026Preprint on strain specific clustering of sporadic CJD in France posted.
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