CV Science

Florence MARGOTTIN-GOGUET HIV Group leader

Course and current status

Current status

Research Director at INSERM / Group leader at Institut Cochin, Paris, France 

Formation and experiences

1993-PhD in Cellular and Molecular biology, Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris (study of transcription in yeast, CEA, Saclay)

1993-1994-Research in Pasteur Institute, French Guyana (malaria)

1994-2000-Research in Cochin Institute, Paris, France (mechanism of CD4 degradation mediated by HIV-1 Vpu, role of the beta-TrCP ubiquitin ligase in inflammation and cancer)

2000-2003-Research in Stanford University, California, USA (regulation of entry into mitosis)    

Since 2004-Group leader at Cochin Institute, Paris, France (genetic conflict between viral proteins and restriction factors)

Awards

2004-Group AVENIR Inserm

2004-"Mairie de Paris" ("Paris city hall") award for Medical research

2014-2017-"Team FRM" award (FRM: Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale)

2022-2025-"Team FRM" award 

2022: "The KT Jeang Retrovirology Prize"

Committees and editorial activity

2012-2020: Member of the scientific committee of the french association SIDACTION.

Since 2018: Member of AC41 ("Action Coordonnée") of ANRS (National Agency for AIDS research)

Since 2019-Member of "Retrovirology" Journal editorial board 

Since 2020-Associate Editor at "Plos Pathogens"

Scientific summary

Florence Margottin-Goguet (or Florence Margottin) is leading with Claudine Pique the team « Retrovirus, Infection and Latency » at Institut Cochin.

Florence Margottin-Goguet graduated in 1993 with a doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. During her PhD, she studied basic transcription in the yeast model in the laboratory of André Sentenac (CEA, Saclay). She published pioneering work on how gene transcription occurs through a common mechanism for all genes (with the central role of TBP, TATA Box Binding Protein) (Science 1991, Nature 1993). 

Starting from 1993, she got interested in infectious diseases, first malaria at the Pasteur Institute of French Guyana, second AIDS at the Institut Cochin in Paris under the supervision of Richard Benarous. During this postdoctoral period, she unraveled how HIV-1 Vpu triggers the degradation of the CD4 receptor of the virus, by using the beta-TrCP ubiquitin ligase adaptor (Molecular Cell 1998). This was the first example of "ubiquitin ligase hijacking" in the HIV field. Additionally, she characterized the key role of beta-TrCP in Inflammation and cancer. 

In 2000, she undertook research training in the cell cycle laboratory of Peter Jackson in Stanford University. During this time, she identified beta-TrCP as the ubiquitin ligase responsible for the degradation of the mitotic inhibitor Emi1, a critical step for entry into mitosis (Genes and Dev 2001, Dev Cell 2003). 

Back to France at the end of 2004, she established her own group at Institut Cochin in Paris (group "AVENIR" of INSERM) and concentrated her efforts on the study of host-pathogen interactions with a focus on viral auxiliary proteins and their ability to inactivate host defense factors, the so-called restriction factors. In 2007, her group was the first to unravel a molecular link between HIV-1 Vpr and G2 arrest and to propose that HIV-1 Vpr and HIV-2 Vpx could use the same "ubiquitin ligase hijacking" strategy to inactivate distinct host restriction factors (Cell Cycle 2007). Later on in 2012, her group, within an international collaboration, identified the mechanism of action of SAMHD1, a restriction factor inactivated by Vpx, in macrophages (Nature Immunology 2012). More recently, her group highlighted a new function of HIV-2 Vpx that is its ability to reactivate latent HIV-1 through HUSH complex antagonism (Nature microbiology 2018). Her group futher uncovered how HUSH represses HIV by connecting epigenetic and RNA degradation machineries (Nature com 2022).

The molecular battle at stake between host restriction factors and viral auxiliary proteins is at the heart of the ongoing research of the team.