Employment is at the university of Rennes in N Theret 's group which offers a
dynamic and stimulating environment. The group belongs to INSERM unit
1085, the Institute of Research for Health and Environment, which
provides core facilities and scientific animation.
Subject of the thesis:
Communication between cancer cells and microenvironment play a critical role in tumor
development. In that context, the ADAMs family of metalloproteases(ADAM/ADAMTS) are major regulator of tumor progression by modulating the biodisponibility of cell communication agents that include cytokines, chemokines and growth factor and are now considered as new therapeutic targets.During last years, our group identified ADAM12 as a new regulator of tumor progression: i) we showed that ADAM12 expression is associated with tumor aggressiveness (Hepatology
2003, J Hepatol. 2005) ; ii) we demonstate that ADAM12 regulates the activity of the transforming growth factor,TGF-beta (J Cell Biol 2007, BMC Res 2009) and iii) we characterized its implication in
integrin-dependent signaling and cell survival (J Biol Chem 2008, Mol Biol Cell 2012). More recently we demonstrated that ADAM12 modulates TGF-beta-dependent epithelio-mesenchymal transition (manuscript in revision) and the ongoing projet deals with the characterization of
proteomic complexes associated with ADAM12 protein. The PhD project will aim to charaterize the protein network and its functions in TGF-beta-dependent signaling during tumor progression.
Candidates profile:
We seek a highly motivated and insightful candidate with a Master degree in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry or an equivalent field.