CV Science

Jean-Francois PEYRON Leukemia: Molecular Addictions, Resistances & Leukemic Stem Cells

Course and current status

Jean-François PEYRON :

Date of birth : september 24th, 1961, Nice, France. married, 2 children.

current position :

- Head of Team #4 : Leukemia: Molecular Addictions, Resistances & Leukemic Stem Cells

INSERM U1065 Centre Méditerranéen de Médecine Moléculaire (C3M),

director : Patrick Auberger

- Interface contract with CHU Nice (Pediatrics Oncology and Hematology departments)

Professional experience :

- INSERM DR2 : 1998

- Habilitation à diriger des Recherches. 1998. Université de Nice.

- Postdoctoral fellow DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Palo Alto. California. USA. 1989-1991. Human Immunology Department, Head Dr. Jan De Vries, group supervisor : Dr. Hergen Spits.

- Training period in Dr. Cox Terhorst’s lab. July 1990. Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Harvard Medical School. (Boston. Massachussets, USA).

- INSERM CR2 : 1988.

- ARC fellowship : 1987.

- Doctorat d'Université en Sciences de la Vie (PhD). 1987. Université de Nice.

- DEA Pharmacologie de l'Université de Nice. 1984.

- Maîtrise de Biochimie. 1983. Université de Nice.

- Licence de Biochimie. 1982. Université de Nice.

- Baccalauréat série C. 1979. Rectorat de Nice.

Expertise :

Cancer research, leukemia, cell biology, signal transduction pathways, oncogenes, tyrosine phosphorylation, NF-kappaB, cancer stem cells, leukemia initiating cells, mitochondria.

Consulting, grant evaluation :

Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer, Cancéropôle Ile de France, Cancéropôle PACA,  INCa, GEFLUC Flandres, Ecos-Sud, Inserm-JSPS, Cancer Research UK, Arthritis UK, Institut Pasteur Italie, European Science Foundation.

Committee president for AERES (2009).

Referee for the Comité d’Evaluation du CHU Nice postes d’accueil CHU-CNRS (2008-2009).

Tutor for new CR INSERM (CSS2) : M Fatah Ouaz (2007) et M Nicolas Bidère (2008).

Reviewer for :

Blood, Cancer Research, Embo J, Oncogene, Mol Cell Biol, J Mol Endo, J Cell Science, J Cell Biol, BBA, BBRC, Febs Letter, Mol Pharmaco, Biochem Pharmaco, Cancer Letters, Eur J Cell Biol, Leuk Research, Med/Sci, Exp Cell Res, Radiation & Environmental Biophysics.

Teaching :

Master Nice University, Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire, Sophia Antipolis (occasionally).

Member of >25 PhD thesis jurys since 1998 (rapporteur, examinateur, Président). 1 jury in Belgium.

Invited conference :

International meeting of the International Cell Death Society “Cell death and cancer“.

“NF-kB at the cross roads of survival or death in cancer cells“. Nice, 2007.

Scientific councils appartenance :

-       Elected member to the council of Ecole Doctorale 85, Université de Nice (2010-)

-       Elected member to the Scientific council of the Faculty of Medicine, Nice (2010-)

-       Coordination committee C3M/U895 (2008-)

-       Co-supervisor “Cell deaths“ theme, Cancéropôle PACA (2008-)

-       IFR50 council (2005-)

Scientific honors :

-       Prix Joseph Amalric, Ligue contre le cancer, comité du Var, 1997.

Scientific production :

77 articles, 3573 citations, h index = 33

Scientific summary

Over the 2010-2016 period, members of the team have contributed to significant advances in the field of cancer research with the following 5 striking facts:

-(1)- demonstration that the 80S human ribosome is a new target in leukemia (Myasnikov 2016. Nature Communications. in press).

-(2)- demonstration that targeting the leukemic metabolism with the anti-diabetic drug metformin or an inhibitor of the LAT1 essential amino-acid transporter inhibits mTORC1 constitutive activation in T-ALLs to induce leukemic cell death and to potentiate the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs in vitro and in vivo (Rosilio 2013. Cancer Lett. 336, 114 ; Rosilio 2014. Cancer Lett. 346, 188) (Rosilio 2015. Leukemia. 29, 1253 ; Patent: US. Provisional Application N°61/947325).

-(3)- discovery of a transfer of mitochondria from mesenchymal stromal cells towards AML cells. The transfer is stimulated by chemotherapy and increases ATP production by recipient AML cells to protect them from chemotherapy (Moschoi 2016. Blood. 128, 253).

-(4)- setting up a fluorescent dilution factor (FDF) in primary AML cells that correlates with the proliferation potential of the sample and its frequency in Leukemic stem cells and displays a pronostic value after 1 week of co-culture with MSCs (Griessinger 2016. Cancer Research. 76, 2082).

-(5)- original finding that the polycomb protein and stem cell marker BMI1 inhibits autophagy in CML cells through the repression of a new target, the CCNG2/cyclin G2 tumor suppressor gene (Mourgues 2015. Leukemia. 29, 1993).