We are interested in cytokinesis, the last step of cell division leading to the physical separation of daughter cells. Our aim is to discover new mechanisms involved in cytokinetic abscission in eukaryotic cells, and to reveal unexpected parallels between cell division and viral budding.
We are interested in one of the most fundamental questions in biology: How a cell divides into two daughter cells. We particularly focus on cytokinesis, the last step of cell division leading to the physical separation of a mother cell into two independent daughter cells. Cytokinesis failure causes microcephaly and can favor tumor development, likely being responsible for 40 to 60% of human carcinomas. Our research is thus closely linked to cell proliferation and cancer biology.
We use state-of-the-art cell biology approaches, including advanced fluorescent live cell imaging, super-resolution microscopy, genome editing, chemogenetics, RNAi-based screens, machine learning and omics to answer three main questions:
1- How are the different components of the cytoskeleton dynamically remodeled during the late steps of cytokinesis?
2- What are the molecular mechanisms and pathways that drive abscission?
3- Can we discover new mechanisms involved in viral budding inspired by our findings in cytokinetic abscission?
More details can be found in the corresponding projects below.
If you want to join our international and enthusiastic lab, please e-mail arnaud.echard@pasteur.fr
