CV Science

Sandrine Faure NEUROMUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT AND ASSOCIATED DISEASES

Course and current status

Appointments

Since 2021: co-Team Leader of the INSERM Team N°4, "Development of the visceral smooth muscle and Associated Pathologies". Physiology and Experimental Biology of Heart and Muscles (PHYMEDEXP), INSERM U1046, UMR 9214 CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Director: Dr. Alain Lacampagne.   

2010-2020: CNRS Research Scientist (CR1) INSERM U1046, Montpellier, France.
Team: Dr. P. de Santa Barbara (Development of visceral smooth muscle cells and associated pathologies).

2005-2009: CNRS Research Scientist (CR1), CRBM, Montpellier, France.
Team: Dr. Philippe Fort (Rho GTPases: Development, differentiation and physiopathology).

2001-2005: CNRS Research Scientist (CR2), CRBM, Montpellier, France.
Team: Dr. Nathalie Morin (PAK  proteins in early Xenopus development).

1999-2001: Post-doctoral position, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Team: Dr. Malcolm Whitman (BMP signaling in early Xenopus development).

Academic Degrees

2011: Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR), University of Montpellier I, France.

1994-1998: Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology in Prof. Marcel Dorée laboratory (CRBM, Montpellier, France).

Honors and Awards

2000-2001 : Postdoctoral fellowship, American Heart Association (AHA).

1999 : Postdoctoral fellowship, ARC.

Scientific summary

    Gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders are enteric neuromuscular pathologies with clinical symptoms ranging from simple constipation to intestinal occlusion. All these syndromes are associated with digestive neuronal and/or muscular defects. GI motility is ensured by the correct coordination of the visceral smooth muscle cells and the autonomous enteric nervous (ENS) system. The ENS is the largest and most complicated subdivision of the peripheral nervous system and its development has been extensively studied over the last 20 years. All of the neurons and glial cells of the ENS are derived from the neural crests (NCs), a small population of cells that originate from the dorsal neural tube, invade the foregut and migrate in a rostrocaudal direction to colonise the entire length of the gut to establish its innervation. The goals of our project are to examine the developmental interrelationships between visceral smooth muscle differentiation and ENS colonization. We use both mouse and avian embryos as animal models, and techniques from development (overexpressions of cDNAs in chick embryos, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry) and molecular biology (cloning, chromatin immunoprecipitation, Microarray technology). With this approach, we aim to charaterize the interactions between smooth muscle and ENS that occur during development to better understand the etiology of different congenital diseases that lead to disorders of GI function.