DC2

Project: study liver cell plasticity in MASH-related inflammation and fibrosis

PhD position at University of Lille

The PhD student (DC2) will leverage single-cell analyses to deconvolute the evolving and altered intercellular dialogues and cellular heterogeneity involved in the development of inflammation and fibrosis in Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH; formerly known as NASH).

The PhD student will be enrolled in the Doctoral School "Biology and Health" at University of Lille, which provides a stimulating academic environment for advanced multi-disciplinary training in basic biological and biomedical research, applied clinical research, medically-related technological innovations and Public Health research. Around 80 doctorate degrees are awarded per year.

This PhD student will work on establishing a map of liver cell heterogeneity in a relevant mouse model of MASH and on human MASH. Targetable signalling pathways and transcriptional regulators will be identified for follow-up experiments dedicated at controlling altered gene regulatory programs and cell functions driving development of liver inflammation and fibrosis. This work will be conducted in a collaborative and transdisciplinary environment with bioinformaticians and biologists from the host laboratory.

COLLABORATORS AND SECONDMENTS IN THIS PHD PROJECT

• University of Bonn: As part of this project, the PhD student will visit the lab of Dr Thomas Ulas for 3 months in order to learn bioinformatic tools allowing to define druggable pathways in MASH.
• BiomimX: Another part of this PhD project consists of a secondment period of 2 months at BiomimX under the supervision of Dr Paola Occhetta (CEO, Co-Founder) to acquire skills in setting up a liver-on-chip platform.

ABOUT THE HOST INSTITUTION

The University of Lille is one of the largest universities in France with its 69,000 students (including 8,400 international students), 6,300 employees and 67 research units including internationally-recognized life science research laboratories. In particular, the candidate will join INSERM Unit 1011 “Nuclear receptors, cardiovascular disease and diabetes” (https://u1011.univ-lille.fr/en/), an academic research institution jointly run by INSERM, the University of Lille, the Lille University Hospital and the Institut Pasteur de Lille. The unit comprises ~120 persons within 5 teams with complementary expertise (‘Nuclear receptors in the metabolic syndrome’; ‘Molecular control of monocyte/macrophage functions in cardiometabolic syndrome’; ‘Nuclear receptors, immuno-inflammation and cardiometabolic diseases’; ‘Molecular analysis of gene regulation in cardiometabolic diseases’; ‘Nuclear receptors in circadian biology’). The unit is also part of the European Genomic Institute for Diabetes (EGID, http://www.egid.fr),) which fosters research and teaching in the field of metabolic diseases and their complications. The unit hosts many trainees (Master 1 and 2 including students of the international Graduate program Precision Health, BTS technical degree, PhD students, Post-doctoral fellows) presently including 15 international students and post-docs. 

About the supervisors

DC2 will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Bart Staels and co-supervised by Dr. Jerome Eeckhoute (CNRS Research Director; https://cvscience.aviesan.fr/cv/479/jerome-eeckhoute) who has extensive expertise in functional genomics and transcriptional regulation of cell identity in liver pathophysiology and Dr. Joel Haas (INSERM Research Director) who holds expertise in animal models of MASH, with an emphasis on changes in lipid metabolism and hepatic inflammation. He has experience performing single-cell RNAseq, transcriptomic analysis and flow cytometry.