CV Science

Albano C. Meli Ph.D, F.E.S.C

Course and current status

I am an Inserm researcher specialized in cardiac excitation-contraction coupling, inherited cardiopathies, and disease modeling using patient-derived organoids.

Director of the Organoid Platform at Montpellier Biocampus

Address: Inserm U1046, 371 Avenue du Doyen Gaston Giraud, CHU Arnaud de Villeneuve, 34295 Montpellier cedex 5


EDUCATION

May 2017      H.D.R. (Summa cum laude), University of Montpellier (France)

2004-2007    Ph.D. (Summa cum laude), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Lab: Center for structural biochemistry, Inserm U1054 – CNRS UMR5048 – University of Montpellier (France)

Supervisor: Dr. Nathalie Saint

Thesis title: Structure/function relationship of external membrane proteins involved in the Type V secretion pathway in Gram negative bacteria


2002-2004    Master in Neurobiology, Faculty of Science, University of Montpellier (France)

2001-2002    License in Cell Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Lille (France)


PROFESSIONAL CAREER

From Oct. 2014       Inserm Research Associate (CRCN as tenure researcher) at PhyMedExp (Inserm U1046, Montpellier, France)

Leader on cardiac disease modeling using iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

2013–2014               AFM and FRM Research Fellow, Inserm U1046

Team head: Dr. Alain Lacampagne


2011-2012                Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine - Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Rep.)

Team leader on Stem cells and cardiac diseases

2008-2011                Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University Medical Center - College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY, USA)

Lab head: Prof. Andrew R. Marks

2004-2007                PhD Student, CBS, Inserm U1054, Montpellier, France

Supervisor: Dr. Nathalie Saint



RECENT PUBLICATIONS (in the last 5 years)

^*, co-first author

^#, co-corresponding author



1.         Pesl, M., Pribyl, J., Acimovic, I., Vilotic, A., Jelinkova, S., Salykin, A., Lacampagne, A., Dvorak, P., Meli, A. C., Skladal, P., and Rotrekl, V. (2016) Atomic force microscopy combined with human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes for biomechanical sensing. Biosens Bioelectron 85, 751-757

2.         Lacampagne, A., Liu, X., Reiken, S., Bussiere, R., Meli, A. C., Lauritzen, I., Teich, A. F., Zalk, R., Saint, N., Arancio, O., Bauer, C., Duprat, F., Briggs, C. A., Chakroborty, S., Stutzmann, G. E., Shelanski, M. L., Checler, F., Chami, M., and Marks, A. R. (2017) Post-translational remodeling of ryanodine receptor induces calcium leak leading to Alzheimer's disease-like pathologies and cognitive deficits. Acta Neuropathol 134, 749-767

3.         Acimovic, I., Refaat, M. M., Moreau, A., Salykin, A., Reiken, S., Sleiman, Y., Souidi, M., Pribyl, J., Kajava, A. V., Richard, S., Lu, J. T., Chevalier, P., Skladal, P., Dvorak, P., Rotrekl, V., Marks, A. R., Scheinman, M. M., Lacampagne, A., and Meli, A. C. (2018) Post-Translational Modifications and Diastolic Calcium Leak Associated to the Novel RyR2-D3638A Mutation Lead to CPVT in Patient-Specific hiPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Journal of clinical medicine 7

4.         Meli, A. C. (2018) Circadian clock: each tissue has its own rhythm. Cardiovasc Res 114, e57-e59

5.         Meli, A. C., and Maack, C. (2018) Scientists on the Spot: Christoph Maack on how to measure mitochondrial parameters in cardiomyocytes. Cardiovasc Res 114, e84-e86

6.         Amedro, P., Bredy, C., Guillaumont, S., De La Villeon, G., Gamon, L., Lavastre, K., Meli, A. C., Richard, S., Cazorla, O., Lacampagne, A., Mura, T., and Vincenti, M. (2019) Speckle tracking echocardiography in healthy children: comparison between the QLAB by Philips and the EchoPAC by General Electric. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 35, 799-809

7.         Amedro, P., Vincenti, M., De La Villeon, G., Lavastre, K., Barrea, C., Guillaumont, S., Bredy, C., Gamon, L., Meli, A. C., Cazorla, O., Fauconnier, J., Meyer, P., Rivier, F., Adda, J., Mura, T., and Lacampagne, A. (2019) Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography in Children With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Prospective Multicenter Controlled Cross-Sectional Study. J Am Soc Echocardiogr 32, 412-422

8.         Jelinkova, S., Fojtik, P., Kohutova, A., Vilotic, A., Markova, L., Pesl, M., Jurakova, T., Kruta, M., Vrbsky, J., Gaillyova, R., Valaskova, I., Frak, I., Lacampagne, A., Forte, G., Dvorak, P., Meli, A. C.^#, and Rotrekl, V.^# (2019) Dystrophin Deficiency Leads to Genomic Instability in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells via NO Synthase-Induced Oxidative Stress. Cells 8

9.         Jelinkova, S., Markova, L., Pesl, M., Valaskova, I., Makaturova, E., Jurikova, L., Vondracek, P., Lacampagne, A., Dvorak, P., Meli, A. C., and Rotrekl, V. (2019) Generation of two Duchenne muscular dystrophy patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell lines DMD02 and DMD03 (MUNIi001-A and MUNIi003-A). Stem Cell Res 40, 101562

10.       Jozwiak, M., Meli, A. C., Melka, J., Rienzo, M., d'Anglemont de Tassigny, A., Saint, N., Bize, A., Sambin, L., Scheuermann, V., Cazorla, O., Hittinger, L., Berdeaux, A., Su, J. B., Bouhemad, B., Lacampagne, A., and Ghaleh, B. (2019) Concomitant systolic and diastolic alterations during chronic hypertension in pig. J Mol Cell Cardiol 131, 155-163

11.       Meli, A. C. (2019) A low protein diet to target cardiovascular disease and cancer in one shot? Cardiovasc Res 115, e1-e2

12.       Meli, A. C. (2019) The impact of cardiovascular diseases and new gene variants in swaying Alzheimer's disease. Cardiovasc Res 115, e102-e104

13.       Meli, A. C., and Alfieri, O. (2019) Scientists on the Spot: advances in cardiac surgery. Cardiovasc Res 115, e32-e33

14.       Meli, A. C., and de Tombe, P. (2019) Scientists on the spot: Myocardium and myofilaments. Cardiovasc Res

15.       Meli, A. C., and Seidman, C. E. (2019) Scientists on the Spot: Putting a halt to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Cardiovasc Res

16.       Jelinkova, S., Vilotic, A., Pribyl, J., Aimond, F., Salykin, A., Acimovic, I., Pesl, M., Caluori, G., Klimovic, S., Urban, T., Dobrovolna, H., Soska, V., Skladal, P., Lacampagne, A., Dvorak, P., Meli, A. C.^#, and Rotrekl, V.^# (2020) DMD Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiac Cells Recapitulate in vitro Human Cardiac Pathophysiology. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 8, 535

17.       Meli, A. C. (2020) When immune cells are coached by intestinal microbiota. Cardiovasc Res 116, e21-e22

18.       Meli, A. C. (2020) Genome protection on the move. Cardiovascular Research 116, e109-e111

19.       Meli, A. C., and Fischmeister, R. (2020) Scientists on the spot: Phosphodiesterases and heart failure. Cardiovasc Res

20.       Meli, A. C., and Kranias, E. G. (2020) Scientists on the Spot: calcium dynamics in heart function. Cardiovasc Res

21.       Sleiman, Y., Souidi, M., Kumar, R., Yang, E., Jaffré, F., Zhou, T., Bernardin, A., Reiken, S., Cazorla, O., Kajava, A. V., Moreau, A., Pasquié, J.-L., Marks, A. R., Lerman, B. B., Chen, S., Cheung, J. W., Evans, T., Lacampagne, A., and Meli, A. C. (2020) Modeling polymorphic ventricular tachycardia at rest using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. EBioMedicine 60, 103024

22.       Souidi, M., Amédro, P., Meyer, P., Desprat, R., Lemaître, J.-M., Rivier, F., Lacampagne, A., and Meli, A. C. (2020) Generation of three Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell lines DMD_YoTaz_PhyMedEXp, DMD_RaPer_PhyMedEXp, DMD_OuMen_PhyMedEXp (INSRMi008-A, INSRMi009-A and INSRMi010-A). Stem Cell Research, 102094

23.       Varga, B.^*, Meli, A. C.^*, Radoslavova, S., Panel, M., Lacampagne, A., Gergely, C., Cazorla, O., and Cloitre, T. (2020) Internal structure and remodeling in dystrophin-deficient cardiomyocytes using second harmonic generation. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, 102295



HONORS AND AWARDS

Awards:

2014-2015: Post-doctoral fellowship from FRM

2013-2014: Post-doctoral fellowship from AFM-Téléthon

2011-2013: European Marie-Curie Fellowship

2004-2007: PhD fellowship MERNT



Grants:

2021-2023: Research grant (PI) from Montpellier University of Excellence (MUSE)

2020-2022: Research grant (Partner) from the Fondation Coeur et Recherche

2016-2019: Research grant (Partner) from AFM-Téléthon

2013-2016: Research grant (PI) from Czech GACR

2013-2016: Research grant (PI) from IGA NT

2013-2014: Research grant (PI) from PHC Barrande (French-Czech network)

2013-2012: Research grant (PI) from ESC



Scientific Society Responsibility:

From 2020: Scientific Director of the Montpellier Organoid Platform

2018-2020: Elected Nucleus member of the Scientists of Tomorrow from the European Society of Cardiology

From 2017: Co-head of work package of the Federation Hospitalo-Universitaire (FHU) ReGenHab (University of Montpellier)

Scientific summary

My expertise encompasses ion channel biophysics, cardiac physiology, and excitation-contraction coupling. I employ a combination of animal models and patient-derived cardiomyocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells to model congenital cardiac arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies, as well as to develop pharmacological interventions.

Over the past, I have played a pivotal role in elucidating the role of the ryanodine receptor / calcium release channel in the pathophysiology of the heart, skeletal muscle, and brain.