Violaine Moreau and Clotilde Billottet, from Team 3, have invited Vincent Hyenne to give a seminar.

Vincent Hyenne is the head of the EXPLORE group at the Tumor Biomechanics lab, INSERM UMR_S1109, Centre de Recherche en Biomédecine de Strasbourg.

The EXPLORE group is studying the priming of metastatic niches by extracellular vesicles

Title : Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles facilitate metastasis onset.

Abstract

Tumor extracellular vesicles (EVs) promote tumor growth and metastasis by mediating the communication between cancer cells and stromal cells. Yet, how they are generated and how they spread in the organism to modify the microenvironment in distant organs remains unclear. In the past, we found that Ral GTPases regulate EVs secretion by maintaining the homeostasis of their compartments of origin, the multivesicular bodies (MVBs). To explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which RalA/B drive exosome secretion, we characterized their proximal interactome and identified EHD4 as a new Ral partner involved in EV secretion. Using various photonic and electronic imaging approaches, we propose that Ral-dependent recruitment of EHD4 to MVBs promotes their maturation and movement. In parallel, we are investigating the function of tumor EVs in the formation of pre-metastatic niches. Combining zebrafish and mouse models, we show that tumor EVs induce a fast mobilization and activation of neutrophils, which facilitate metastasis initiation.

Biosketch

Vincent loves watching and imaging living (and anesthetized) animals. He did his PhD in Jussieu, Paris on epithelial polarity in mouse early embryonic development (B. Maro lab). He then moved to IRIC (Labbé lab, Montreal, Québec) where he studied the establishment of cell polarity, and its link with vesicular trafficking in C. elegans. Back in France at the IGBMC (Labouesse lab, Illkirch), he got fascinated by exosomes and extracellular vesicles (EVs) and identified new genes required for their secretion in C. elegans. He joined the Tumor Biomechanics lab, where he got recruited at CNRS in 2016 to study the secretion, spreading and function of tumor EVs in metastasis in mice and zebrafish. He is in charge of the fish facility and has to admit that zebrafish, also not being a nematode, is pretty cool. Vincent is a board member of the French Society of Extracellular Vesicles (FSEV) and the REVE (Réseau Est des Vésicules Extracellulaires). Vincent loves nothing more than traveling with his family, except maybe a good book, or a basketball game, or a glass of good wine.