Céline Denais
Céline was born in Marseille and raised in Saint Quentin en Yvelines situated in the suburb of Paris.
She has always cultivated a tremendous interest in disciplines related to Medical Sciences. Her motivation relied on understanding the why of things. She naturally followed the path of biology and obtained a Bachelor in Biochemistry, a M1 in Cell Signalling and Integrative Neurosciences and a M2 in Cancerology from the University Paris-Saclay.
Her thirst for knowledge towards new emerging fields drove her across the Channel where she completed a PhD in Molecular Genetics at King’s College London under the supervision of Professor Richard Trembath. The work she performed was to investigate the molecular aetiology of a rare skeletal dysplasia Syndrome (DMC: Dyygve-Melchior-Clausen) particularly in defining the role and function of the dymeclin protein responsible for this disease.
She then moved to the United States where she carried out a postdoc in Dr Jan Lammerding’s laboratory at Cornell University for 5 years. Her interest in cancer pathways had fully bloomed since she studied how lamins influenced nuclear events during migration of metastatic cells under mechanical constraints. There, she gained a set of unique techniques utilizing cutting edge technologies and decided to apply her newly acquired interdisciplinary background back to Europe.
She became a member of Professor Sam Janes’ team at UCL in 2016. Her research agenda was to develop novel and innovative techniques for identifying key mechanical parameters that regulate lung cancer metastasis. To accomplish this goal, she used her expertise in the microfluidic technology to mimic complex biological systems but she also complemented her scope of techniques by getting access to valuable tools such as patient donors’ databank or “omic” sequencing.
She recently joined the LAAS-CNRS to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms triggered by mechanical stress on pancreatic tumor progression and its links with genomic instability.
Current members
Alumni
09/2019-10/2024
10/2020-09/2024
Studies in medicine
02/2020-12/2023
Post doc @ Université Aix-Marseille