CV Science

Denis Furling PhD, CNRS Research Director

Course and current status

Scientific formation at Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France

PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Laval University, Québec, Canada (1997)

Post-doctoral fellow in J. Puymirat (Québec) and G. Butler-Browne (Paris) laboratories

Senior researcher position (CR1) at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the team of G. Butler-Browne at the Institut de Myologie, Paris (2004)

Accreditation to supervise research (HDR), UPMC University-Paris 6 (2010)

Currently: CNRS Research Director and team leader at the Centre de Recherche en Myologie (UPMC/Inserm/CNRS), Institut de Myologie, Paris.

Scientific summary

The research of my team is focused on DM1, one of the most common neuromuscular dystrophy in adults caused by expanded CTG repeats in the 3’ region of the DMPK gene. DM1 is an autosomal dominant genetic disease, which belongs to the new family of RNA gain-of-function disease. The two main goals of my research are:

- to decipher mechanisms responsible for myogenic program alterations and muscle dysfunctions induced by expanded CTG repeats

- to develop new therapeutic strategies for DM1