Cédric MAURANGE
Neural cell plasticity
Neural cell plasticity
KEYWORDS: Neural Stem Cell, Cancer Stem Cell, Central Nervous System
Drosophila
Self-Renewal, Proliferation, Nutrition, Cell growth
RNA-Binding Proteins
Developmental origin of cancer
Drosophila
Self-Renewal, Proliferation, Nutrition, Cell growth
RNA-Binding Proteins
Developmental origin of cancer
Our group uses Drosophila as a model organism to investigate the mechanisms modulating neural stem cell (NSC) proliferative and differentiation properties during development, cancer and under various nutritional conditions.
Development: We concentrate on a series of sequentially express transcription factors that sets the temporal patterning system in NSCs. We and others have shown that temporal patterning both ensures that different types of neurons and glia are produced by NSCs along development, and limit the number of NSCs to developmental stages. We aim at identifying the core components of this temporal patterning system as well as its upstream regulators and downstream targets.
This work will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms allowing a safe and controlled manipulation of NSCs for therapeutic purposes.
Cancer: We have recently found that NSC-encoded temporal patterning delineates an early window of malignant susceptibility during neural development. This work has led us to propose a model for the developmental origin of cancers that may apply to childhood neural malignancy in humans. We are currently investigated the molecular basis of this phenomenon.
We have also identified different cellular compartment in these neural tumours caused by dedifferentiation. We are designing genetic tools to investigate, through lineage analyses, the cellular hierarchy governing tumour growth. We are using this new genetically tractable model to investigate the basic molecular principles governing the population of cancer stem cells. Our aim is to identify the conserved molecular pathways that need to be targeted for their elimination in order to cure cancer.
Nutrition: Another line of research consists in investigating how nutritional conditions intersect with intrinsically regulated growth programs in NSCs, and impact on the final number of neurons by the end of development.
Development: We concentrate on a series of sequentially express transcription factors that sets the temporal patterning system in NSCs. We and others have shown that temporal patterning both ensures that different types of neurons and glia are produced by NSCs along development, and limit the number of NSCs to developmental stages. We aim at identifying the core components of this temporal patterning system as well as its upstream regulators and downstream targets.
This work will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms allowing a safe and controlled manipulation of NSCs for therapeutic purposes.
Cancer: We have recently found that NSC-encoded temporal patterning delineates an early window of malignant susceptibility during neural development. This work has led us to propose a model for the developmental origin of cancers that may apply to childhood neural malignancy in humans. We are currently investigated the molecular basis of this phenomenon.
We have also identified different cellular compartment in these neural tumours caused by dedifferentiation. We are designing genetic tools to investigate, through lineage analyses, the cellular hierarchy governing tumour growth. We are using this new genetically tractable model to investigate the basic molecular principles governing the population of cancer stem cells. Our aim is to identify the conserved molecular pathways that need to be targeted for their elimination in order to cure cancer.
Nutrition: Another line of research consists in investigating how nutritional conditions intersect with intrinsically regulated growth programs in NSCs, and impact on the final number of neurons by the end of development.
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