We investigate the role of environmental signals during the physiological and pathological wiring of the nervous system.
neuronal development cell polarity axon guidance cell division cell migration cancer
Team
- Valérie CASTELLANI
SENIOR RESEARCHER, CNRS - Dounia BEN AMAR
PHD STUDENT - Muriel BOZON
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, CNRS - Céline DELLOYE-BOURGEOIS
RESEARCHER, CNRS - Hugo DUCUING
PHD STUDENT - Julien FALK
RESEARCHER, CNRS - Thibault GARDETTE
PHD STUDENT - Karine KINBEITER
RESEARCH ASSISTANT - Frédéric MORET
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR - Servane TAUSZIG-DELAMASURE
SENIOR RESEARCHER, CNRS - Karine THOINET
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, CNRS
Alumni
- Leila BOUBAKAR
PHD STUDENT MENRT - Edmund DERRINGTON
PROFESSOR - Sarah DINVAUT
DOCTORANT - Katrin GERTSMANN
POST-DOCTORANT - Aurora PIGNATA
PHD STUDENT - Florie REYNAUD
PHD STUDENT ERC
PROJECTS
Polarization, which confers asymmetry at molecular, cellular and tissue scales, is a fundamental process establishing key features of biological systems. In multicellular organisms, symmetry breaking triggers the specification of embryonic body axes, providing general landmarks for subsequent morphogenetic programs. Cells and tissues acquire complex morphological and functional polarity features, which, remarkably, are highly precisely positioned within the general body landmarks. The lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms setting the spatial orientation of some selected polarity processes, taking place during the formation of the nervous system. We investigate the topography of progenitor cell divisions, and neuronal differentiation, using the developing spinal cord and sensorimotor circuits as a model. We also investigate how topographic cues impact on a closely related pathological context, the neuroblastoma, a neuro-developmental cancer arising from trunk neural cell crest. We exploit chick and mouse embryo animal models, combined with live imaging, cell and tissue cultures and molecular approaches.
START UP
OncoFactory is a start-up founded in 2016 as a spin-off of the Castellani lab, based on the work of Dr. Céline Delloye Bourgeois and Dr. Valérie Castellani at the NeuroMyoGene Institute in Lyon. OncoFactory offers an innovative in vivo model suited for all cancers consisting in the creation of miniaturized replicas of patient tumors in an embryonic organism. Tumors are analyzed in the whole organism using 3D imaging. Replicas can be collected back for a range of molecular analysis. Using this innovative technological platform OncoFactory evaluates the efficacy and studies the mechanisms of action of therapeutic candidates, help the design of combi-therapies through a dedicated program integrating analysis of tumor responses to the candidate therapy and characterization of candidate therapy-induced activated signaling pathways, identifies biomarkers/gene signatures to predict the response and the resistance. https://www.oncofactory.com/
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Spatial and temporal profiling of receptor membrane insertion controls commissural axon responses to midline repellents.
Pignata A, Ducuing H, Boubakar L, Gardette T, Kindbeiter K, Bozon M, Tauszig-Delamasure S, Falk J, Thoumine O, Castellani V. Cell Rep. (2019) 29, 347–362, October 8. - Hijacking of Embryonic Programs by Neural Crest-Derived Neuroblastoma: From Physiological Migration to Metastatic Dissemination.
Delloye-Bourgeois C, Castellani V. Front Mol Neurosci. (2019) Mar 1;12:52. - Septin functions during neuro-development, a yeast perspective.
Falk J, Boubakar L, Castellani V. Curr Opin Neurobiol. (2019) Feb 18;57:102-109 - Commissural axon navigation in the spinal cord: A repertoire of repulsive forces is in command
Ducuing H, Gardette T, Pignata A, Tauszig-Delamasure S, Castellani V. Semin Cell Dev Biol. (2019) S1084-9521:30286-0. - Microenvironment-Driven Shift of Cohesion/Detachment Balance within Tumors Induces a Switch toward Metastasis in Neuroblastoma
Delloye-Bourgeois C, Bertin L, Thoinet K, Jarrosson L, Kindbeiter K, Buffet T, Tauszig-Delamasure S, Bozon M, Marabelle A, Combaret V, Bergeron C, Derrington E, Castellani V. Cancer Cell (2017) 32:427-443. - Molecular Memory of Morphologies by Septins during Neuron Generation Allows Early Polarity Inheritance
Boubakar L, Falk J, Ducuing H, Thoinet K, Reynaud F, Derrington E, Castellani V. Neuron (2017) 95:834-851. - Genetic specification of left-right asymmetry in the diaphragm muscles and their motor innervation
Charoy C, Dinvaut S, Chaix Y, Morlé L, Sanyas I, Bozon M, Kindbeiter K, Durand B, Skidmore JM, De Groef L, Seki M, Moons L, Ruhrberg C, Martin JF, Martin DM, Falk J, Castellani V. Elife (2017) e18481. - Cerebrospinal fluid-derived Semaphorin3B orients neuroepithelial cell divisions in the apicobasal axis
Arbeille E, Reynaud F, Sanyas I, Bozon M, Kindbeiter K, Causeret F, Pierani A, Falk J, Moret F, Castellani V. Nat Comm (2015) 27;6:6366. - PlexinA1 is a new Slit receptor and mediates axon guidance function of Slit C-terminal fragments
Delloye-Bourgeois C, Jacquier A, Charoy C, Reynaud F, Nawabi H, Thoinet K, Kindbeiter K, Yoshida Y, Zagar Y, Kong Y, Jones YE, Falk J, Chédotal A, Castellani V. Nat Neurosci. (2014) 18:36-45. - Use of pHluorin to assess the dynamics of axon guidance receptors in cell culture and in the chick embryo
Delloye-Bourgeois C, Jacquier A, Falk J, Castellani V. JOVE (2014) 12:e50883. - gdnf activates midline repulsion by Semaphorin3B via NCAM during commissural axon guidance
Charoy C, Nawabi H, Reynaud F, Derrington E, Bozon M, Wright K, Falk J, Helmbacher F, Kindbeiter K, Castellani V.Neuron (2012) 75:1051-66.
FUNDING
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