Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, France

The Inserm U1235 ‘The Enteric Nervous System in Gut and Brain Disorders (TENS)’ is a Translational Research Unit in Neurogastroenterology accredited by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the University of Nantes. Our main goals are to understand the regulation of digestive functions by the enteric nervous system in health, in particular during the perinatal period, and in diseases of interests (inflammatory bowel diseases; digestive cancers; neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases; spinal cord injury);  to develop innovative tools (organoid, organ-on-chip, imaging) and models to characterize pathogenic mechanisms and identify factors leading to digestive and brain diseases; and to identify therapeutics (nutrition, microbiota, neuromodulation) to restore gut function and the gut-brain axis.
TENS takes advantage of a rich research infrastructure that includes state of the art equipment and an organoid core facility to study intestinal epithelial cells and the enteric nervous system and perform functional studies. Within the EUROoC framework, we provide secondments in iPSC training and directed differentiation of organoids on-chips.