Team Julie PANNEQUIN

RESPONSABLE

Julie Pannequin

DR2, CNRS

IGF staff involved
Laia BASSAGANYAS
CRCN, CNRS
Tinhinan LAHLOU
IR CDD, Inserm

We have recently demonstrated that tumor dissemination occurred much earlier than previously believed in colorectal cancer. Now the next step is to identify key mechanisms involved in the early pre metastatic niche in the liver, which is the main organ for metastasis development in this cancer. In addition, with the help of Dr Bourgaux in the team we aim at validating some of the important results in patient samples.

One of the oldest chemotherapies, 5-Fluorouracile (5-FU), given to more than 2 millions of patients yearly, still possess some mysterious modes of action. Indeed, mainly described as impacting DNA, growing evidence strongly suggest that its incorporation on RNA has drastic consequences. In this project we study the impact of 5-FU on translation leading to drug tolerance.

Although circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a major role in the metastatic process, they remain poorly functionally described. It is known that these cells circulate in clusters with cells of the microenvironment including cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs). We have previously established CTC lines from patients with metastatic CRC and in this project, we aim at characterizing the dialogue between CAFs and CTC and unraveling the impact of this interaction on the CTC phenotype.