PhD Thesis Project (M/F): The role of cell surface RNA - breast cancer

Laboratory

The team “RNA, Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis”, led by Albertas Navickas, has been recently established at Institut Curie, in the “Genome Integrity, RNA and Cancer” (UMR3348) department in Orsay. We focus on the gene regulatory networks promoting the establishment of the metastatic niche. The founding of the lab has been supported by the ATIP-Avenir program, ARC foundation, PSL Young Researcher Starting Grant, and Ruban Rose association. More information is accessible at https://institut-curie.org/team/navickas.

Our lab is affiliated with the Doctoral School CBMS (ED582) at Université Paris Saclay.

Description of the PhD thesis project

It has been recently discovered that cells produce glycosylated RNAs (glycoRNAs) and that some glycoARNs are localised on the cell surface1. More importantly, cell surface RNAs have been shown to regulate cell migration in the context of inflammation. For example, neutrophils devoid of cell surface glycoRNAs show defect in migration to the injury site in acute inflammation mouse models2. While cell migration is a key process in metastasis, and an increasing amount of data point to the links between inflammatory tissue state and metastasis, it is unknown if cell surface glycoRNAs have a role in metastasis, the main reason of cancer-related mortality. Our data show that 1) human and mouse breast cancer (BC) cell lines produce glycoRNAs, and 2) cell surface RNA removal by RNase treatment impact BC cell individual and collective migration in vitro. This PhD project aims to understand the role of cell surface RNAs in breast cancer metastasis.

References

1. Flynn, R. A. et al. Small RNAs are modified with N-glycans and displayed on the surface of living cells. Cell 184, 3109-3124.e22 (2021).

2. Zhang, N. et al. Cell surface RNAs control neutrophil recruitment. Cell 187, 846-860.e17 (2024).