The Clean Research Unit 9022 CNRS (UPR 9022), "Immune Response and Development in Insects" is one of three laboratories of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Cellular Federative Institute CNRS located on the central campus University of Strasbourg.

The search for the 9022 UPR focuses on the study of molecular and cellular bases of antimicrobial defense (bacteria, fungi and viruses) invertebrates using as models, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster and Anopheles gambiae mosquito. For twenty years, these models have been developed for studying the innate immune system and control mechanisms against pathogens or parasites such as Plasmodium responsible for malaria.

The reaction of defense against infections is based on the innate immune system that activates the adaptive immune response in vertebrates. From our discovery of the role of the Toll receptor in the antifungal response, which allowed the identification of the family of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in mammals, many studies have now established Drosophila as a model for studying the innate immune response.

The innate immune system of Drosophila is based on a triple component, cellular, humoral and epithelial. To these are added protease cascades activation mechanisms triggered by the injury and controlled by serpins, leading to the melanization of the wound and blood clotting around thereof.

The humoral response of Drosophila includes the rapid synthesis and secretion in the blood of a battery of antimicrobial peptides with broad-spectrum, active against both gram-negative bacteria and gram-positive than against fungi. The expression of these peptides depends on two independent intracellular signaling pathways, Toll and IMD pathways both activate transcription factors of the NF-kB family.