• Home >
  • Teams >
  • Genomics and Development of Childhood Cancers

Presentation

Genomics and Development of Childhood Cancers


Our laboratory is interested in identifying cellular heterogeneity and hierarchies, and in decoding the molecular mechanisms involved in the tumorigenesis of childhood cancers. Our team lies at the interface between cancer biology and developmental biology. We are specialized in bioinformatics and the analysis of large-scale genomic data to answer complex biological questions such as: what are the programs that govern cell fate in our brain? can we use the tumor ecosystem as a vulnerability to propose new therapeutic strategies?

 

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children. The mechanisms of tumor initiation in adult and childhood cancers are very different. Pediatric cancers often result from deregulation of normal developmental processes, causing a block in cell differentiation. By hijacking programs of the normal development, cancer cells have time to develop and grow as pre-cancerous lesions then progress into a tumor.

 

One of the main goals of our team is to identify these mechanisms in order to resolve the spatio-temporal origins of pediatric brain tumors using single-cell omics technologies and genome-wide data analyses. In addition, we investigate the transcriptional and post-transcriptional programs of the normal development that are hijacked by cancer cells in order to exploit these vulnerabilities and to propose new therapeutic strategies for these deadly cancers. We use computational biology and genomics to understand what are the normal differentiation programs driving cell differentiation and use this knowledge to better understand the mechanisms that are hijacked by cancer cells in children. Our main strengths are cancer biology, computational biology and genomics.UMAP

 

One of the main aims of our team is to identify these mechanisms in order to trace the developmental origins (in time and space) of pediatric brain tumors. We are also interested in identifying the transcriptional and post-transcriptional programs that are hijacked by cancer cells. The aim of our research program is to exploit these developmental vulnerabilities and propose new strategies for treating these deadly cancers. To achieve this, our team analyzes data from single-cell omics and genome-wide data from human embryonic development and patient tissues. Our core strengths are cancer biology, computational biology and genomics.

 

Hiring

Human at the heart of our priorities! We're convinced that together we'll make faster progress in cancer research!

We recruit at all levels (postdoc, engineer, PhD, Master)! 

You have a background in computational biology and you are interested in omics data applied to the development of childhood cancers? Send us your CV to olivier.saulnier@curie.fr

 

 

Les membres de l'équipe


 

Mafalda Frère

 

Mafalda FRÈRE
Research intern from AgroParisTech (6 months)

 

 

 

Loïc Lecomte

 

Loïc LECOMTE
Engineer 

 

 

 

Marine Louarn

 

Marine LOUARN
Postdoctoral fellow

 

 

 

Lexane Louis

 

Lexane LOUIS
PhD candidate (École doctorale Sciences du Vivant, Université PSL)

 

 

Publications

Life of the team

NEWS:

  • 01/10/2024: Lexane wins best poster award at international React4Kids conference!
  • 01/08/2024: Mafalda Frère joins our team for a 6-month internship as part of her AgroParisTech engineering training.
  • 04/29/2024: Congratulations to Lexane, who has been awarded a three-year doctoral fellowship by the Institut Curie via the IC-PhD program.
  • 04/15/2024: Marine Louarn joins our team as a post-doctoral researcher after obtaining her PhD at INRIA and a first post-doc experience in Vancouver.
  • 12/02/2024: Lexane Louis, a graduate of INSA Lyon, joins our team as an M2 intern.
  • 08/01/2024: Loïc Lecomte is the first member to join our team as a bioinformatics engineer. He graduated from the EFREI computer engineering school in Paris.

 

Join us

There is currently no job offer.

See more job offers from the Research Center

Partners

See all teams