CV Science

Violaine MOREAU PhD, Cancer cell biologist

Course and current status

Violaine Moreau is a research scientist at Inserm since 2002 and a research director (DR2) since 2014. She is experienced in the direction of researches and organizations: group leader during 13 years, she heads the “Liver Cancer and Tumor Invasion” Inserm team since 2016. After being appointed, in 2020 at the direction of the Inserm Unit 1053, for two years, she is now deputy director of the BoRdeaux Institute of onCology (BRIC) Unit 1312, a multi-team Inserm unit dedicated to cancer research at the University of Bordeaux.

EDUCATION

2006               HDR, Life Sciences, Bordeaux I University, France

1996               PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

2014-present    Research Director (DR2) at Inserm

2002-2014       Researcher (CR1) at Inserm

1999-2002       Senior Lecturer (Maître de conferences) at Bordeaux 1 University, Bordeaux, France

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

From Jan 2022 Deputy director of Inserm UMR1312 - BRIC, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

2020-2021  Director of  Inserm UMR1053 - BaRITOn, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

2016-present    Team leader, Inserm-University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; Unit director: Jean Rosenbaum (Jan-Sept 2016), Jean-Philippe Merlio (Sept 2016-2020), Frédéric Saltel (from 2022). Project: Molecular bases of hepatic tumor invasion

2007- 2016       Group leader, Inserm Unit U889, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux (France). Unit director: Jean Rosenbaum. Team leader: Jean Rosenbaum. Project: Small GTPases in hepatocellular carcinoma

2002-2006        Researcher, Inserm Unit U441, Institut Européen de Chimie-Biologie, Pessac, France. Unit director: Jacques Bonnet. Team leader: Elisabeth Génot. Project: Podosomes in endothelial cells

1999-2002        Senior Lecturer (Maître de conferences), Laboratoire des Facteurs de Croissance et de la Différenciation Cellulaire, Bordeaux, France. Unit director: Andreas Bikfalvi. Team leader: Elisabeth Génot. Project: Role of Cdc42 in the organization of the actin cytoskeleton in endothelial cells

1996-1999        Post-doctoral position at EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), Heidelberg, Germany. Group leader: Michael Way. Project: Cellular cytoskeleton reorganization upon vaccinia virus infection

1992-1996        PhD, Cellular and Molecular Biology Institute, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France. Team leader: Robert Martin. Thesis director: Barbara Winsor. Thesis title: Etude de la fonction du gène ACT2/ARP2 codant pour une protéine apparentée à l'actine chez Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Scientific summary

The main focus of V. Moreau research is the involvement of RhoGTPases and their regulators in cell motility. Her interest in actin cytoskeleton and small GTPases is long-standing.

For many years, her work focused on the regulation of actin polymerization, working on the Arp2 protein during her PhD in Strasbourg and on N-WASP and WIP proteins during her post-doc in M. Way's laboratory at EMBL (Heidelberg). This work describing the basic mechanisms of actin polymerization led to a series of high impact papers.

Moreover, she started to study GTPase signaling during her post-doc, while using the vaccinia virus as a model. She then developed a strong expertise in RhoGTPase signaling and invadosomes in Bordeaux. In 2007, she joined Jean Rosenbaum’s laboratory (Bordeaux) and focused her work on the study of small GTPases in liver cancer.

Currently, the project of the team, she is co-leading with F. Saltel, focuses on the 3 following axes: 1) Precancerous lesions and mediators of liver carcinogenesis; 2) Molecular bases of tumor invasion and 3) Biomarkers for liver cancers.

Selected Publications

Moreau V, Madania A, Martin RP, Winsor B. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin-related protein, Arp2 is involved in the actin cytoskeleton. Journal of Cell Biology 1996, 134, 117-132.

Frischknecht F, Moreau V, Roettger S, Gonfloni S, Reckmann I, Miki H, Superti-Furga G, Way M. Actin-based motility of vaccinia virus mimics receptor tyrosine kinase signalling. Nature, 1999, 401, 926-929.

Moreau V*, Frischknecht F*, Reckmann I, Vincentelli R, Rabut G, Stewart D, Way M. A complex of N-WASP and WIP integrates signalling cascades that lead to actin polymerization. Nature Cell Biology, 2000, 2, 441-448.

Moreau V, Tatin F, Varon C, Genot E. Actin can reorganize into podosomes in aortic endothelial cells : a process controlled by Cdc42 and RhoA. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2003, 23 (19), 6809-6822.

Tatin F, Varon C, Genot E, Moreau V. A signalling cascade involving PKC, Src and Cdc42 regulates podosome assembly in cultured endothelial cells in response to phorbol ester. Journal of Cell Science, 2006, 119, 769-781.

Grise F*, Sena S*, Bidaud-Meynard A, Baud J, Hiriart JB, Makki K, Dugot-Senant N, Staedel C, Bioulac-Sage P, Zucman-Rossi J, Rosenbaum J, Moreau V. Rnd3/RhoE is down-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and controls cellular invasion. Hepatology, 2012, 55, 1766-1775.

Binamé F*, Bidaud-Meynard A*, Magnan L, Piquet L, Montibus B, Chabadel A, Saltel F, Lagree V, Moreau V. Cancer-associated mutations in the protrusion-targeting region of p190RhoGAP impact tumor cell migration. Journal of Cell Biology, 2016 Sep 26;214(7):859-73.

Ezzoukhry Z#, Henriet E#, Cordelières FP, Dupuy JW, Maître M, Gay N, Di-Tommaso S, Mercier L, Goetz JG, Peter M, Bard F, Moreau V, Raymond AA* and Saltel F*§. Combining laser capture microdissection and proteomics reveals an active translation machinery controlling invadosome formation. Nature Communications, 2018 May 23;9(1):2031.

Mehidi A, Rossier O, Schaks M, Chazeau A, Binamé F, Remorino A, Coppey M, Karatas Z, Sibarita JB, Rottner K, Moreau V, Giannone G. Transient immobilizations of activated Rac1 at the lamellipodium tip trigger membrane protrusion. Current Biology, 2019 Sep 9;29(17):2852-2866.e5.

Basbous S, Paysan L, Sena S, Allain N, Hiriart JB, Dugot-Senant N, Rousseau B, Chevret E, Lagrée V, Moreau V. Silencing of Rnd3/RhoE inhibits the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma and is associated with reversible senescence. Cancer Gene Therapy, 2022, 10.1038/s41417-022-00445-6.

Sala M, Allain N, Moreau M, Jabouille A., Henriet E, Abou Hammoud A, Uguen A, Di-Tommaso S, Dourthe C, Raymond AA, Dupuy JW, Gerard E, Senant N, Rousseau B, Merlio JP, Pham Ledart A, Vergier B, Tartare-Deckert S, Moreau V, Saltel F. Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 orchestrates melanoma resistance combining phenotype switching and proliferation. Oncogene, 2022, Accepted.

Links:

ORCID number: 0000-0002-4513-7022

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Violaine_Moreau2

https://www.bricbordeaux.com/