Autophagy in pathophysiology

The main focus of the team is to understand the importance of autophagy and the selective autophagy of mitochondria (the so called mitophagy) processes in physiological conditions such as aging, neurodevelopment. Also, we aim to better understand how these processes are deregulated in pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases, muscular disease and to develop tools to manipulate them. We believe that our goals are of the utmost importance in the biology of neurogenerative diseases, but also in the context of muscular diseases since autophagy is deregulated in many of these disorders.

To this end, we are combining techniques such as biochemistry (western-blotting, immunoprecipitation, kinase assay etc…), confocal microscopy analysis, in vivo manipulation of autophagy in brain of mice (injection of AAV encoding autophagic proteins or fluorescent reporters of mitophagy; nanoparticle manipulation etc.).

Fundings

Over the past few years, the team has received support from several funding organizations. The most recent funding includes grants from France Alzheimer (2022-2024), Arqus (2025), the Ligue contre le cancer (2025-2026), the Fondation Alzheimer (2025-2027), and the Fondation Recherche Alzheimer (2026-2028). The team also receives support from AFM-Téléthon through its participation in the MyoNeurALP strategic research program.

Our other activities

• Members of the team are part of the Scientific Committee of the French Autophagy Club (Club Francophone de l’Autophagie – CFATG) and are also members of the American association Women in Autophagy.
• The team gathers members of Lyon and Roma doctoral schools.
• Members of the team were involved in organization of 5 national and international meetings since 2022.
• We are also participating in public science outreach events.