Doctoral position, Autophagy Infection Immunity Team, CIRI Lyon Inserm U1111

We propose a thesis project to study the influence of autophagy polymorphisms on Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects more than one million patients in Europe. This intestinal inflammation results from an inappropriate immune response to the gut microbiota in a predisposed genetic context. Many genes have been identified as predisposing to Crohn's disease, several of which involve a major mechanism of the cell, autophagy. Autophagy is a dynamic process that allows the degradation and recycling of damaged and obsolete elements of the cell, and also controls infectious microbial agents. Despite important advances, the understanding of the close link between autophagy dysfunction and Crohn's disease remains largely unresolved, both at the patient and cellular or molecular levels.

Thus, the objective of the thesis project is to evaluate the consequences of autophagy dysfunction, resulting from the expression of autophagic variants in Crohn's disease patients, on the quality of the degradative activity of this process. To this end, cellular (patient lines and primary cells), imaging (confocal), and molecular (proteomic) approaches will be used. This project is part of a collaborative project, and will be carried out within the Autophagy Infection Immunity team specialized in the study of autophagy in the context of infection and inflammation. The candidate will benefit from a high level scientific (CIRI) and technical (SFR BioSciences) environment to carry out his/her project. 

The candidate must have a solid knowledge of immunology and cell biology, and must show enthusiasm, motivation, initiative and rigour.

Please send before 15 February 2023 :

- Letter of motivation with the names of two referees.

- Curriculum vitae 

To Aurore Rozières: aurore.rozieres@inserm.fr 

Selected publications

• M. Claviere, A. Lavedrine, G. Lamiral, M. Bonnet, P. Verlhac, D.S. Petkova, L. Espert, R. Duclaux-Loras, J. Lucifora, M. Rivoire, G. Boschetti, S. Nancey, A. Rozières, C. Viret* and M. Faure*. Measles Virus-Imposed Remodeling of the Autophagy Machinery Determines the Outcome of Bacterial Coinfection. Autophagy, 2022, Aug 9;1-15.
• Servais L, Boschetti G, Meunier C, Gay C, Cotte E, François Y, Rozieres A, Fontaine J, Cuminal L, Chauvenet M, Charlois AL, Isaac S, Traverse-Glehen A, Roblin X, Flourié B, Valette PJ, Nancey S.Intestinal Conventional Ultrasonography, Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography and Magnetic Resonance Enterography in Assessment of Crohn's Disease Activity: A Comparison with Surgical Histopathology Analysis. Dig Dis Sci. 2022 Jun;67(6):2492-2502. 
• Moroso M, Verlhac P, Ferraris O, Rozières A, Carbonnelle C, Mély S, Endtz HP, Peyrefitte CN, Paranhos-Baccalà G, Viret C, Faure M. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus replication imposes hyper-lipidation of MAP1LC3 in epithelial cells. Autophagy. 2020 Oct;16(10):1858-1870.

• Soufflet N, Boschetti G, Roblin X, Cuercq C, Williet N, Charlois AL, Duclaux-Loras R, Danion P, Mialon A, Faure M, Paul S, Flourie B, Nancey S (2019). Concentrations of Ustekinumab During Induction Therapy Associate With Remission in Patients With Crohn's Disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. Mar; pii: S1542-3565(19)30248-4.