On behalf of the "reseau MuFoPAM" Board, we have the great pleasure to invite you to the MuFoPAM 2023 days which will be held in Lille from October 23 to 25, 2023.

The aim of these days is to bring together French teams interested in antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), to encourage meetings and presentations by young researchers in training as well as by established researchers, and to encourage synergies between different disciplines to enable the emergence of innovative, cross-disciplinary research projects. This annual event is also an opportunity to contribute to the debate on the actions to be taken and encouraged in France, in line with the international context for the development and enhancement of the multifunctionality of MAPs. Lastly, it promotes the attractiveness and interest of MAPs in the face of current public health challenges, such as the increasingly rapid emergence of resistance to so-called conventional antibiotics, but also for innovative biological activities that were largely underestimated in the past.

The MuFoPAM network brings together fifty French research teams, i.e. some 200 researchers, teacher-researchers, engineers, technicians, doctoral and post-doctoral students, spread across the country and affiliated with the CNRS, INRA, INSERM, MNHN, universities, CEA, etc. The MuFoPAM network is a network of researchers, engineers, technicians and post-doctoral students.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are widely distributed defense peptides in living organisms from micro-organisms to mammals. The great diversity of PAMS leads to a wide range of functions. They are major players in innate immunity in metazoans and competitive molecules for microorganisms. As chemical mediators, PAMs play a crucial role in the interactions of micro-organisms with each other or with their host.
Faced with the public health challenge of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, PAMs are emerging as a promising therapeutic strategy and an alternative to conventional antibiotics.