CV Science

Mathieu Gabut PhD Biochemistry and Cellular Biology

Course and current status

Education and training

2015                Deputy Director of the Department "Cancer Cell Plasticity"

2013                Atip-Avenir program laureate
                        Principal Investigator: "Transcriptome diversity in stem cells" lab
                        Centre for Cancer Research of Lyon (CRCL - U1052 INSERM), France.

2012                Permanent Research Associate INSERM (CR1 position)
                        Centre for Cancer Research of Lyon (CRCL - U1052 INSERM), France.                       
                        Auboeuf Laboratory - Alternative splicing and tumor progression. 

                        Lecturer - Master of Research in Genetics, Cell Biology and Pathology
                        University Claude Bernard Lyon I (UCBL), France.

2011-2012       Research Associate
                        Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Canada.
                        Batada Laboratory - Genome instability, stem cell biology and cancer.

2006-2011       Postdoctoral Fellow
                        Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Canada.
                        Blencowe Laboratory – Transcriptome-wide regulation of alternative splicing.

2002-2006       Ph.D. degree in science, specialized in Biochemistry and Cellular Biology
                        University Montpellier 2, France.
                       Tazi Laboratory – RNA metabolism

2001                Master degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology
                        Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) of Lyon, France
                        Fellow of the European Student Exchange program (ERASMUS).

Awards and Honours

2013                Laureate of the AVENIR program for junior principal investigators, founded by the French
                        National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

2012                2012 Lap-Chee Tsui Publication Award from the Canadian Institute for Health Research.

2008-2011       Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Postdoctoral research fellowship (Canada).

2006-2007       Charles H. Best Foundation Postdoctoral fellowship (Canada).

2005-2006      "Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer" (ARC) doctoral fellowship (France). 

2002-2005       Doctoral fellowship from the French Ministry for Education and Research (France).

2000-2001       ERASMUS Student grant (France and Sweden).

Scientific summary

Our current research is aimed at identifying factors and signalling pathways which control the functional diversity of the transcriptome underlying gene expression programs that support the of stem cells fate.

More specifically, we are investigating the role and regulation of alternative splicing, a key step of mRNA maturation and a power mechanism generating mRNA and proteomic diversity, for the control of stem cell identity.

Using high-throughput technologies (splicing microarrays and RNA-seq), we are focusing on two models:

1- we study the role of alternative splicing programs (co-regulated splicing events) and of the plasticity of the translational machinery for the maintenance of mouse embryonic stem cell fundamental properties (self-renewal and pluripotency). Our recent work identified a novel and conserved splicing event for the transcription factor FOXP1 which acts as a switch on stem cell fate, either promoting their maintenance or their differenciation (Gabut et al, Cell, 2011)

2- in collaboration with Pr. Jérome Honnorat, Head of the Neuro-oncology unit at the Pierre Wertheimer Hospital (Lyon, France), we investigate how alternative splicing is differentially regulated between human normal neural stem cells and their pathological counterparts: human cancer stem cells responsible for Glioblastoma. Our objective is to determine how alterations of stem cell splicing programs in cancer stem cells contribute to their tumorigenic capacities.