Organelle interplay in Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy

The aim of this project is to explore whether mutations associated in human with an hereditary neuropathy could trigger this disease by interfering with the communication between mitochondria and other organelles.

Indeed, mitochondria are physically attached to a variety of partner organelles to facilitate the exchange of biological products that support a variety of functions essential for neuronal activity.

Our hypothesis is that the mitofusin mutations that cause CMT2A neuropathy may disrupt the functional coupling between mitochondria and the rest of the organelle community.

The PhD student will explore this hypothesis using drosophila in which we were the first to develop models of CMT2A. This research will rely on state-of-the-art microscopy and image analysis, as well as sophisticated molecular biology and genetic tools. In particular, we have developped a variety of techniques to perform high resolution confocal imaging of organelles in living motor neurons using transgenic animals expressing multiple fluorescent reporters.

Outstanding research institute, very active and very well equiped.Many foreign students and post-docs (English language used for all seminars...). State-of-the-art imaging faciliy

https://www.ibdm.univ-amu.fr/

Located in the Campus of Luminy in the Calanques national park.

https://www.calanques-parcnational.fr/fr

Candidates can either have a Master degree or be in the last year of their Master degree

Candidate should have a strong background in cellular and molecular biology, a strong interest in fundamental research and the taste for experimentation in particular microscopy and image analysis, molecular biology and genetics