CV Science

Claudie LEMERCIER PhD - HDR, Molecular Biology and Immunology

Course and current status

- PhD obtained in 1991, at Rouen University, Inserm U78 laboratory, France. Monocytes/Macrophages and the Complement System. Advisors: Dr M. Fontaine and Dr J. Ripoche

- Postdoc at Leicester University (1991-1993), dept of Immunology, UK. Advisor: Prof K. Whaley. Molecular regulation of the proteins of the complement system.

- Postdoc at Purdue University (1993-1996), dept of Biological Sciences, IN, US. Advisor: Prof S. Konieczny. Transcription factors and myogenesis. Discovery and characterization of Mist1 bHLH factor

- Postdoc at Bordeaux University, Bone marrow transplant laboratory, CNRS UMR5540 (1996-1998), France. Advisor: Dr J. Ripoche and Prof J. Reiffers.

- Postdoc at Grenoble University UJF, Inserm U309, Cellular and Molecular Biology of Cell Differentiation (1998-2001), France. Advisor: Dr S. Khochbin. Chromatin, Epigenetic, Histone deacetylase and acetyltransferase characterization. (class II HDAC, Tip60)

- Appointed as a permanent INSERM (NIH equivalent) researcher in 2001 at Grenoble.

- 2004: HDR diploma (Habilitation à diriger des recherches)

- 2004- 2010 at Grenoble: Work on mouse TCR genes using FISH techniques (unpublished), study of the role of Myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) in macrophage differentiation and c-Jun regulation, study on nuclear damages in macrophages infected by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  

- Since 2010, joined the Research Institute in Technologies and Sciences for Biology (iRTSV) at the CEA-Grenoble, Inserm unit 1038 "Biologie à Grande Echelle" (large scale biology). Dir. J. Garin and X. Gidrol. Our "Biomics" team is generally involved in fonctional and large scale siRNA screenings. I do work on histone H2AX phosphorylation in the context of nuclear damages following gamma-irradiation or upon infection by the opportunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa. In collaboration with microbiologists, we have shown that P. aeruginosa induces DNA double-strand breaks in infected cells and activation of DNA damage signaling and repair pathways (H2AX, ATM, 53BP1).

As pathogenic Escherichia coli or carcinogenic Helicobacter pylori can alter genome integrity through DNA double strand breaks, leading to chromosomal instability and eventually cancer, our findings highlight possible new routes for further investigations of P. aeruginosa in cancer biology and they identify ATM as a potential target molecule for drug design.

- 2016: I joined the regional Inserm administration office (DR Inserm Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne). My major task will consist in promoting strong interactions and collaborations between Inserm researchers and patients' associations. 

Scientific summary

 I am involved in research dealing with normal or cancerous cell differentiation, with a special emphasis on transcription factors and their interacting proteins, as well as their actions on epigenic modifications and gene regulation. Classical and high performance molecular, cellular and biochemical methods are used to analyze these aspects. The genotoxicity of bacterial pathogens such as P. aeruginosa was investigated more recently. Since the beginning of 2016, I am involved in a NEW PROJECT in collaboration with the national Inserm association office. The goal of this project is to promote strong and fruitfull interactions/collaborations between Inserm researchers and patients' associations.