Contacts et personnels
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Gordon Langsley, PhD DR2 CNRS gordon.langsley@inserm.fr |
Responsibilities:
Head of lab: “Comparative Cell Biology of Apicomplexa parasites”. Co-director of working group 1 of the EU-funded COST Action 857 (Apicomplexan biology in the post-genomic era). Member of the American Society of Cell Biology, the Société Française de Biologie Cellulaire and the Société Française de Parasitology.
Research focus:
The
laboratory's research focus is in host-parasite signaling interactions in two
Apicomplexa parasites of medical importance: Plasmodia and Theileria. We are
particularly interested in signaling pathways that control Rab-mediated
vesicular transport. In Theileria parasites our efforts have up until recently,
concentrated on lymphocyte signaling pathways, but currently we are testing
parasite genes capable of induction the AP-1 and NF-kB transcription factors. In
Plasmodia parasites we focus on the regulation of Rab-mediated vesicular
traffic by exploiting the rodent P. berghei model to use reverse genetics to
understand the contribution of individual Rabs to vesicular traffic and P.
falciparum to characterize the role of kinases in regulating Rab function.
Jusqu'à 2005 Gordon Langsley a dirigé le Laboratoire de Signalisation Immunoparasitaire dans les Départements d'Immunologie et Parasitologie à l'Institut Pasteur (voir publications dans PubMed)
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Marie
Chaussepied, VetMed, PhD. |
Research project:
Marie did her PhD in the lab while we were still at the Pasteur Institute and following a post-doctoral stay with Doron Ginsberg at the Weizmann Institute, she has returned to work with us again on Theileria. She focuses is on how Theileria-mediates leukocyte survival via the activation of host cell signalling pathways. In collaboration with Doron’s lab, now based at Bar Ilan Unversity (http://www.biu.ac.il/faculty/ginsbed/), she is continuing her studies on the family of E2F transcription factors and how they mediate survival and she is also continuing her work on the JNK/AP-1 pathway. Shown instead of her photo is a Theileria-infected B cell undergoing apoptosis
(Annexin V staining in red) following JNK inhibition with condensed chromatin is stained green.
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Alicia Cock-Rada, MD Master (M2) Student in Genetics at Université Paris 7 |
Alicia did her medical studies in Colombia.
Research focus:
Her research project concerns the role of the JNK pathway in transformation and the epigenetic modifications associated with tumour progression and metastasis in Theileria-infected leukocytes under the direction of Professor Jonathan Weitzman.
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Claudine Creuzet IE INSERM claudine.creuzet@inserm.fr |
Responsibilities:
Claudine is a member of the INSERM committee CAP4.
Research Focus:
Claudine is generating P. berghei parasites null for rab1a, rab1b, rab6 and rab18.
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Jean Dupouy-Camet, MD, PhD
PU-PH |
Responsibilities:
Professor of Medical Parasitology & Mycology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris V and Head of the Parasitology-Mycology Clinical Service at the Cochin Hospital. Also General Secretary of the French Society of Parasitology and Head of the "Centre National de Référence des Trichinella" and President of the International Commission on Trichinellosis.
http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/parasitocochin
Research Focus:
With all of his teaching and clinical responsibilities Jean research activity is restricted to being our “clinical conscience”.
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Anais Merckx, PhD Ile-de-France/INSERM post-doctoral fellow. |
Research focus:
Anais did her PhD on the characterisation of Plasmodium falciparum kinases and her post-doc project is based on the regulation of vesicular transport in P. falciparum via kinase-mediated phosphorylation of parasite Rabs. Currently, she is doing in vitro kinase assays testing the activity of 13 different recombinant kinases against the 11 different Rabs making up the P. falciparum Rab family. Once specific residues have been identified, transgenic P. falciparum parasites harbouring mutant rab
genes (mimicking permanently phosphorylated and non-phosphorylable Rabs) will be generated and the effect of phosphorylation on vesicular transport will be estimated. The study of Rab-kinases is done in collaboration with Christian Doerig, head of INSERM U609 in Glasgow, Scotland.
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Chantal Miclet Technician, Medical Faculty, University Paris V |
Responsibilities:
infections.
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Bernina Naissant PhD student (2nd year),
University Paris VI |
Research focus:
Malaria parasites encode 2 Rab11 GTPases – Rab11A and Rab11B – normally involved in regulating recycling endosomes. We have initiated a genetic study of Plasmodium berghei rab11b and demonstrated that is exclusively expressed in oocyst (harbouring thousands of sporozoites) and hepatic schizonts (harbouring thousands of merozoites). We have shown that like yeast, the P. berghei rab11b gene is not essential implying overlapping, if not identical, functions for Rab11A and Rab11B. Bernina’s PhD project is to generate P. berghei parasites null for both rab11a and rab11b and to generate DsRed-Rab11A + GFP-Rab11B expressing P. berghei parasites to determine if both GTPases are rhoptry-specifc and to ascertain the contribution of each GTPases to the regulation of the release of rhoptry contents during host cell invasion by Malaria parasites.
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Thiery Ndong
Mba,
PhD
student (1st year), University Paris VIthierry.ndongmba@nserm.fr |
Research focus:
Thiery uses reverse genetics to study the role of Rab5A, Rab5B and Rab5C in hemoglobin uptake in Plasmodium. This study on hemoglobin uptake forms part of our collaboration with David Elliot at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is directed by Hélène Yera, MD-Pharma, PhD. Thiery is support by a fellowship from the government of Gabon administrated by the CNOUS (www.crous-paris.fr).
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Andre Paugam, MD, PhD
MCU-PH andre.paugam@cch.ap-hop-paris.fr |
Responsabilities:
Over and above his research activity, André has both clinical and teaching duties in the Parasitology-Mycology Clinical Service of the Cochin Hospital.
Research Focus:
Previously, André studied the proteosome of Toxoplasma gondii and for this reason is particularly interested in Plasmodium Rab7, typically a late endosome-specific Rab, as Rab7 has been described to interact with the proteasome alpha-subunit XAPC7. André is therefore, using reverse genetics to determine the role of Rab7 in P. berghei parasites and via the generation of GFP-Rab7 expressing transgenic parasites, characterise its interaction with XAPC7 and the parasite’s proteosome. He currently directs Fathia Ben Rached, a 2nd year Masters student studying cellular and molecular biology at University of Paris 6.
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Marie-Paule Roisin, PhD DR2 CNRS |
Research Focus:
Given her long-standing interest in Toxoplasma kinases, Marie-Paule continues to interest herself in interactions between Rabs and kinases in Plasmodium.
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Jonathan Weiztman |
Responsibilities:
Jonathan is a Professor of Epigenetics at the Université Paris 7 Diderot. He previously lead a research group at the Institut Pasteur, working on signal transduction pathways and the control of genetic programs in cancer cells. He was drawn to the laboratory, by the fascinating features of leukocyte transformation by the Theileria parasite.
Research focus:
He is studying the role of the JNK pathway in transformation and the epigenetic modifications associated with tumour progression and metastasis. Jonathan directs the work of Alicia Cock-Rada, a second-year Masters student in the Magistère de Génétique program at the Université Paris 7.
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Hélène Yera, MD-Pharma, PhD
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Responsibilities:
Over and above her research activity, Hélène has both clinical and teaching duties in the Parasitology-Mycology Clinical Service of the Cochin Hospital.
Research focus:
Hélène uses reverse genetics to study the role of Rab5A, Rab5B and Rab5C in hemoglobin uptake in Plasmodium. This study on hemoglobin uptake forms part of our collaboration with David Elliot at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She currently directs Thiery Ndong MBa, PhD student studying parasitology at University of Paris 6.
