.jpg){kind=logo}
Dissecting the biomechanical events underlying tumor invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis
Jacky GOETZ, PhD
Team Leader
Jacky graduated in Pharmacology and Cell Biology from University of Strasbourg (France) where he studied astrocytoma cell migration in the laboratory of Ken TAKEDA. He then moved to the laboratory of Ivan Robert NABI in Montreal (University of Montreal, Canada), and later in Vancouver (University of British Columbia, Canada), where he first studied the interaction between the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. He was in parallel interested in glycosylation of membrane proteins, in particular integrins, and described its importance, in concert with Caveolin-1 (Cav1), in fibronectin fibrillogenesis, focal adhesion dynamics and tumor cell migration. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2007 from both University of Montreal and University of Strasbourg. He then moved to the CNIC in Madrid (Spain) in the laboratory of Miguel Angel del Pozo where he led a study on the implication of Cav1 in biomechanical remodeling of the microenvironment and showed its importance in normal tissue architecture but especially during tumor progression. He then joined the team of Julien VERMOT at the IGBMC in Strasbourg (France) to pursue his interests in mechanotransduction phenomenons using zebrafish as a model. He recently won the « SBCF young scientist » prize for his contribution to Cell Biology and started his team « Tumor Biomechanics » in 2013 where he develops his growing interest for the role played by biomechanical forces during tumor progression. He could « kill » for sushi and loves the alsatian architecture.
Nandini ASOKAN, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Nandini from India, obtained her Masters degree in Molecular Bioengineering, from Technical Univerity of Dresden, Germany. She did her PhD in the lab of Prof. Dr. Martin Bornhäuser, Stem cell lab, Dresden. For her graduate work, she established and characterized an ‘embryonic zebrafish xenograft model’ using high resolution selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM). Further validated the model using known drug and screened for few candidates that target tumor cell migration and invasion. Upon graduating, She got interested to understand the role of host immune cells towards the incoming tumor cells in-depth. Towards this end, she joined Jacky’s team to study the impact of extracellular vesicles and immune cells in metastatic outgrowth using zebrafish. She has been actively involved in ‘Science goes to School’ projects to spread science in young minds. She likes to play Cricket, an avid Boardgamer, follows premier league games, if nothing is there, she kills her boredom with her cooking experiments :-)
Louis BOCHLER
PhD Student
Florent COLIN, PhD
Project Manager
Florent studied at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Strasbourg, specialising in molecular biology and biochemistry. After his Master 2 in the team of Dr. Irwin Davidson (IGBMC), he joined the team of Dr. Hélène Puccio (IGBMC) to do his thesis on the implication of iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis in the rare neurodegenerative disease called Friedreich’s ataxia, in collaboration with Dr. Sandrine Ollagnier-deChoudens (CEA, Grenoble). He then joined the team of Pr. Jean-Louis Mandel and Pr. Jamel Chelly (IGBMC) as project leader of GENIDA, a participatory and international study on genetic forms of neurodevelopmental disorders. He has joined the team of Dr. Jacky Goetz (TUMOR Biomechanics lab, Strasbourg) as project leader of NANOTUMOR.
Amandine DUPAS
PhD Student
Amandine has always been attracted by science and particularly biology. After passing the competitive exams to study in engineering school, she left her native countryside and joined the Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg (ESBS) where she studied biology in a trinational context (French, English and German). Curious and interested in the multidisciplinary fields of biology, she joined in her Master 2 the Cell Physics program at the University of Strasbourg. In March 2020, she joined Jacky Goetz’s team for her master 2 internship, in order to deepen her knowledge in oncology and particularly in cancer biomechanics. In her free time, Amandine enjoys reading, taking walks in nature with friends and solving puzzles.
Maria GARCIA-LEON, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
María, originally from Spain, did her PhD in the lab of María L. Toribio at the Molecular Biology Center Severo Ochoa (CMB) and graduated with honors in Immunology and Molecular Biology by the Autónoma University of Madrid. She studied the Notch signalling crosstalk within the human thymic niche and its contribution to normal lymphocyte development and leukemia pathogenesis. At Jacky’s lab she is interested in depicting the role of biomechanical forces and blood cells (such as platelets) in acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) cell infiltration. Her commitment with Science goes out of the lab as she loves teaching Biology to kids and students, and it is often involved in science public engagement events. She also loves practicing and watching boxing and likes to follow the American UFC ligue of mixed martial arts.
Valentin GENSBITTEL
PhD Student
Valentin was born and raised in Alsace, where he spent his youth in a tiny village. After high school, he discovered the citizen lifestyle when he moved to Strasbourg in order to study biology. He obtained his Bachelor’s in « Cellular Biology and Physiology » in 2017 and decided to follow up with a Master’s degree in « Developmental Biology and Stem Cells ». During the first year of his degree, he became interested in cancer biology and dedicated a lot of bibliographical work to this particular subject. He saw an opportunity to work on similar interesting topics when he found Jacky’s lab. He joined the team as a Master student in September 2018 and dedicated his internship to studying the importance of cell stiffness on metastatic progression. Outside of the lab, Valentin likes to spend his time watching movies at the theatre or spectacular english Premier League football games on the week-ends.
Kuang-Jing HUANG, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Kuang-Jing (KJ) was born in Tainan, the sugar capital of Taiwan. He obtained his Ph.D. from National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan. His Ph.D. subject is related to ferroptosis-inducible nanomedicine and mitochondrial redox biology in cancer treatment. At NCKU, he also served as a part-time teaching assistant at the electron microscopy (EM) center. He has undertaken academic exchanges at some European EM centers. These centers’ experts inspired him to become a scientist who specializes in research using EM. Therefore, he started his post-doctoral career at the Microscopy Center of Chang-Gung University (CGU), then became an EM specialist at the Instrument Center of National Defense Medical Center (NDMC) in Taiwan. His Ph.D. and current post-doctoral training merge as the interdisciplinary collaboration of cancer biologists and electron microscopists. From now on, “seeing is believing” has become a flagship in his research career. He joined Jacky’s team to explore the ultrastructure feature during EVs secretory in breast cancer cells through state-of-the-art EM techniques. Outside the lab, he is a Harry Potter fan and is interested in finding traces of magic. His wizarding passport is Gryffindor and Patronus is a Lynx. A wand chooses him, which is made of ash wood with a phoenix feather core, 13 ¾”, and hard flexibility.
Vincent HYENNE, PhD
Researcher
Vincent Hyenne did his PhD in Jussieu, Paris on epithelial polarity in mouse early embryonic development. He then moved to IRIC (Montreal, Québec) where he studied the establishment of cell polarity, and its link with vesicular trafficking, using C. elegans embryo as a model system. Back in France at the IGBMC (Illkirch), he got fascinated by exosomes and extracellular vesicles (EVs) and identified new genes required for their secretion in C. elegans. He joined Jacky’s team to study EVs in the context of tumor progression, using intravital imaging correlated to electron microscopy. Vincent loves to play (watch) basketball while reading a good book and drinking a good wine.
Katerina JERABKOVA, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Katerina Jerabkova (Katka), originally from Czech Republic, did a double degree PhD program between the Charles University (Prague) and the University of Strasbourg. She studied the role of ubiquitin signaling in the regulation of cell division. Using live-video and super resolution microscopy she described a novel factor controlling mitotic progression and thus euploidy of human cells. She became interested in how cancer cells differ from the cells of healthy tissues and for this purpose she joined the Nanotumor project. This collaborative effort aims to answer those questions by studying the cancer cell morphology and signaling pathways. When not in the lab she likes to run and paint.
Annabel LARNICOL
Lab Manager
After studying biology at J. Rostand high school in Strasbourg and getting a diploma in 1989, Annabel got a permanent position at INSERM in1990. She then joined J.-M. Egly team at the IGBMC and worked there for more than 25 years. Her expertise in molecular biology allowed her to become a specialist in in vitro transcription assay. She participated to the purification and identification of keys elements of the transcription machinery. Recently she decided to challenge herself and totally changed her professional environment by joining Jacky Goetz’s team in August 2018. She hates cooking, loves the crossfit and never refuses to have drinks with friends.
Olivier LEFEBVRE, PhD
Researcher
After getting successfully his DEA in 1990, Olivier started his PhD in Paul Basset and Marie-Chiristine Rio team at IGBMC, establishing animal models in order to understand the function of two genes, the stromelysin-3 (MMP-11) and TFF1 (pS2), implicated in breast cancer. In 1995 he started a post-doctoral fellow at Inserm U381 in Patricia-Simon Assmann team, on the role of basement membrane molecule, especially Laminins, in normal and pathological intestine. Two years after, he was recruited as Inserm scientist focusing his research on Laminin 111 isoform in organ development and tumorigenesis. In 2003 he joined the Inserm-MN3t team, directed by Gertraud Orend, working on the role of extracellular matrix, mainly Laminin 111 and Tenascin-C, on angiogenesis during cancer progression.
Cristina LIBONI, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
From Italy with love, Cristina obtained her Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Bologna after a short stay at the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology in Cambridge (UK). She then moved to Padova, where, under the supervision of Prof. Antonella Viola, she obtained her PhD degree in Biomedical sciences in 2021. During her PhD, she dissected the role of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in the pathogenesis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy and the anti-angiogenic (AA) properties of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from these cells. During her first post- doc, she attempted to employ these EVs as an AA treatment in Ewing Sarcoma. Her joint interest for tumor, EVs, and stromal compartment, prompted her to join Jacky's lab where her aim will be to characterize and revert the contribution of aging in metastasis.
Outside the lab, Cristina love to ride her beloved bike Ottavia, read books, cook and train her beer tasting abilities with friends:)
Benjamin MARY
PhD Student
Benjamin obtained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Strasbourg, during which he chose to spend one year at the University of Montreal in student exchange program, where he discovered the warmhearted atmosphere of Quebec. Back to France, he spent one Master year studying Health Biology in Paris. Then, he moved to Strasbourg, his hometown, in order to do a master’s degree in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology. While spending two months in Jacky’s lab (M1 internship), he fell in love with the wonderful world of Extracellular Vesicles, working closely with Vincent Hyenne. He decided to continue his journey in this field. He did his second internship (M2) in the team and continue as PhD student in the tumor biomechanics lab, working on tumor Extracellular Vesicles and their link with metastasis formation. Ben defines his self as a meat-eater vegan-friendly.
Vincent MITTELHEISSER, PharmD
PhD Student
In parallel of his pharmacy studies, Vincent decided to do a Master degree. He spent one Master year studying “Pharmaceutical biotechnologies” in Illkirch. Then, after a Master 1 internship in Kastner & Chan’s lab at the IGBMC studying the transcriptional regulation of early hematopoiesis, he chose to do a Master 2 degree in « Immunology and Inflammation ». Through these experiences, he became interested in cancer immunotherapy. Vincent joined the team as a Master 2 student in September 2019 in collaboration with the Detappe’s lab at the Centre Paul Strauss. He dedicated his internship to develop bispecific simili CAR-NK immune cells. Outside of the lab, Vincent likes to spend his time watching series, listing to music and (sometimes) going to the opera or museums.
Naël OSMANI, PhD
Researcher
Naël did his PhD in the lab of Sandrine Etienne-Manneville at Curie and then Pasteur institutes in Paris, working on the Cdc42-dependent regulation of polarity during cell migration. He then moved to Strasbourg and joined the lab of Michel Labouesse at IGBMC where he studied the role of Arf6-dependent traffic and caveolin 1 in the regulation of epithelial integrin adhesions and their mechanoresponse. He joined Jacky’s lab in 2015 as a senior post doc working on the contribution of flow and role of cell adhesion mechanics during tumor cell extravasation. He bacame a tenured researcher in 2020 and now leads the Force Axis within the lab.
Outside of the lab, he is a big fan of martial arts and has been practicing kung-fu for more than 20 years. He has been teaching Wing Chun in Strasbourg since 2018. He also loves killing time binge-watching or reading.
Marina PERALTA, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Marina, originally from Spain, did her Ph.D. in Dr. Nadia Mercader’s lab at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC). There, she started a research line implementing in vivo imaging to uncover the role of fluid forces on epicardial development using the zebrafish. In 2015, Marina joined Dr. Julien Vermot’s lab at the IGBMC as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow to develop a multidisciplinary project uncovering a novel cilia-independent function for IFT complex B proteins regulating Yap1 during cardiogenesis. Then, she joined Dr. Gonzalo del Monte-Nieto at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) to study trabeculation in the mouse. Since her graduate studies, Marina has been fascinated by the highly regulated interplay between genetics and physical forces. She recently joined Jacky’s lab to explore the complex relationships between vasculature, biomechanical forces and cancer cells using live imaging. Outside the lab, Marina likes to play video games and reading.
.jpg)
Charlotte SARRE, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Mathilde SUSS
Master 2 Student
Mathilde was born and grew in Alsace; after high school she did a DUT in biology and then obtained a bachelor in “molecular and cell biology” in 2021 in the University of Strasbourg. She decided to follow their studies with a master in “Molecular Genetic of Development and Stem Cells”, she chose the option “cancerology” in the first year and was very interested by this topic. Now, in master 2, she joins the Jacky Goetz’s team for her internship of biomechanisms regulate the circulating tumoral cells. Outside the lab Mathilde likes cooking, listen to music, watching movies and series or spending time with their friends.
Lucas WALTHER
PhD Student
Lucas did a Master’s degree in “Pharmaceutical biotechnology” during his pharmacy studies in Illkirch. He quickly became interested in oncology and new therapies while doing his Master 2 internship at Transgene S.A., a biotechnology company focused on cancer vaccines and multifunctional oncolytic viruses. Keeping in mind the research field since the beginning of his studies, he tooks the opportunity to start a PhD (CIFRE thesis) at Transgene S.A. in collaboration with Jacky’s lab to study EVs released from cells infected with armed poxviral vectors and their potential use in EV-based cancer therapy. Outside of the lab, Lucas enjoys listening to music and watching series, and is interested in photography and video as a beginner.