Raphaël Margueron, Junior Researcher Grand Prix 2022 from the Fondation de France

I’ve been at Institut Curie for 10 years and I work on the Polycomb proteins that control cell identity,

explained Raphaël Margueron at the Junior Researcher Grand Prix ceremony at the Fondation de France’s medical research gala.

These proteins mark the genes to indicate whether or not they must be expressed. When these proteins are deficient, we see a loss of cell identity. This malfunction has been observed in certain pathologies, including cancer

The funding of 50,000 euros attached to this award will allow Margueron’s team - Mechanisms of Repression by Polycomb Group Proteins - to continue its basic research on a gene updated in the gametes, and involved in fertility, but which is also connected to the process of carcinogenesis in a brain cancer sub-type.

In the Genetics and Developmental Biology unit (CNRS UMR3215/Inserm U934/Sorbonne University) at Institut Curie’s Research Center, the team demonstrated the role of Polycomb proteins in epigenetic memory, and observed their deregulation in a certain number of cancers.