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© 2009 Thierry Galli

Keywords

Neuritogenesis

Cell migration

Membrane fusion

 
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Group leader: Thierry Galli

INSERM Research Director (DR2)

E-mail: thierry.galli@inserm.fr

Phone: +33 1 57 27 80 39
 
 
 
 
Thierry Galli received his BSc in Biochemistry at the University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, in 1988, and his PhD at the Collège de France and the University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, in 1992. He then moved to the USA to carry out postdoctoral research in Professor Pietro De Camilli's laboratory at Yale University School of Medicine. There he worked on the molecular mechanism of regulated and constitutive exocytosis. In 1995, he took his first research appointment at the French National Institute of Health (INSERM) and the Curie Institute in the laboratory of Professor Daniel Louvard, and in 2001 he was recruited as Research Director of the French National Institute of Health at the Fer-à-Moulin Institute, Paris. In 2005, he was appointed as a Group Leader at the Jacques Monod Institute, Paris. His research focuses on the role of SNARE proteins in exocytosis mediating epithelial and neuronal cell differentiation, with particular emphasis on the tetanus neurotoxin-sensitive routes, mediated by cellubrevin and synaptobrevin, and the tetanus neurotoxin-insensitive routes mediated by TI-VAMP. Biographical sketch.

Our projects

Membrane trafficking allows for the communication between the different membrane compartments of the biosynthetic and endocytic pathways and for the communication between cells and their environment through the secretion of signalling molecules by exocytosis and capture of nutrients by endocytosis. Exocytosis and endocytosis are crucial to maintain cell homeostasis and are also involved in differentiation and morphogenesis of cells.

 

Neuronal cell differentiation and de-differentiation of epithelial into mesenchymal cells represent two fundamental models of important cellular changes in shape and function. These two processes share common principles because both imply the presence of a domain specialized for cell movement at the leading edge of the cell, the axonal growth cone and the pseudopodium respectively.

 

Our working hypothesis is that exocytosis is responsible for the release and expression at the plasma membrane of proteins that are important for cell migration, outgrowth of axons and dendrites, formation and maintenance of cell-cell contacts (including synapses), and the repair and plasticity of neuronal and epithelial cells.

 

The aim of the team is to understand the basic mechanisms and the regulation of membrane trafficking in axonal outgrowth and epithelial cell migration. Our favorite molecules are the vesicular SNARE proteins Cellubrevin and TI-VAMP, and the adhesion protein Vezatin. We study the function of these proteins at the molecular, cellular and organism level.

 

We use classical techniques of cellular and molecular biology with special emphasis on live cell imaging and proteomics, as well as biophysical approaches to study membrane dynamics, adhesion and fusion in vitro. Our models include mutant mice, cultured neuronal and epithelial cells, and the reconstitution of proteins into artificial membranes.

 
 

Role of membrane trafficking in axonal outgrowth and neuronal differentiation


Thierry Galli
, INSERM Research Director (DR2)
Phone: +33 1 57 27 80 39
(Illustration by Jean-Pierre Laigneau)





 
 

Biophysics of intracellular membrane fusion machineries (SNAREs and Mitofusins)

 
David Tareste
, INSERM Researcher (CR1)
Phone: +33 1 57 27 80 38
(Illustration by Daniel de Fuenmayor)
 
 
 
 
 
 

Vezatin in epithelial and neuronal morphogenesis

 

Marie-Christine Simmler, CNRS Research Director (DR2)

E-mail: simmler.marie-christine@ijm.univ-paris-diderot.fr

Phone: +33 1 57 27 80 75
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Recent publications

Zylbersztejn K, Petkovic M, Burgo A, Deck M, Garel S, Marcos S, Bloch-Gallego E, Nothias F, Serini G, Bagnard D, Binz T, Galli T (2012) The vesicular SNARE Synaptobrevin is required for Semaphorin 3A axonal repulsion. J Cell Biol 196:37

Li F, Pincet F, Perez E, Giraudo C, Tareste D, Rothman J (2011) Complexin Activates and Clamps SNAREpins by a Common Mechanism Involving an Intermediate Energetic State. Nat Struct Mol Biol 18:941

Ji H, Coleman J, Yang R, Melia T, Rothman J, Tareste D (2010) Protein determinants of SNARE-mediated lipid mixing. Biophys J 99:553.

Danglot L, Chaineau M, Dahan M, Gendron MC, Boggetto N, Perez F, Galli T (2010) Role of TI-VAMP and CD82 in EGFR cell-surface dynamics and signaling. J Cell Sci 123:723.

Yamada H, Padilla-Parra S, Park SJ, Itoh T, Chaineau M, Monaldi I, Cremona O, Benfenati F, De Camilli P, Coppey-Moisan M, Tramier M, Galli T, Takei K (2009) Dynamic interaction of amphiphysin with N-WASP regulates actin assembly. J Biol Chem 284:34244.

Burgo A, Sotirakis E, Simmler MC, Verraes A, Chamot C, Simpson JC, Lanzetti L, Proux-Gillardeaux V, Galli T (2009) Role of Varp, a Rab21 exchange factor and TI-VAMP/VAMP7 partner, in neurite growth. EMBO Rep 10:1117.

Tsaneva-Atanasova K, Burgo A, Galli T, Holcman D (2009) Quantifying neurite growth mediated by interactions among secretory vesicles, microtubules, and actin networks. Biophys J 96:840.

Bahloul A, Simmler MC, Michel V, Leibovici M, Perfettini I, Roux I, Weil D, Nouaille S, Zuo J, Zadro C, Licastro D, Gasparini P, Avan P, Hardelin JP, Petit C (2009) Vezatin, an Integral Membrane Protein of Adherens Junctions, is Required for Sound Resilience of Cochlear Hair Cells. EMBO Mol Med 1:128.


Address and directions

Membrane Traffic in Neuronal and
Epithelial Morphogenesis (INSERM U950)
Program in Development and Neurobiology
Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS UMR 7592)
Université Denis Diderot - Paris 7
Bâtiment Buffon, 3rd floor, labo 316B
15 rue Hélène Brion, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
Office: +33 1 57 27 80 39
Lab: +33 1 57 27 80 37/38/40





 

Pics of Hela cells and Neurons