Sébastien Pio

Cancer stem cells are now well known to be responsible for recurrence and resistance to treatment in many cancers. This is particularly the case in glioblastoma, which is a very aggressive brain tumor with a poor prognosis despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) share many of the properties of stem cells, namely self-renewal, differentiation, and migration. Resistant to treatment and endowed with significant capacities to invade nerve tissue, GSCs are thought to be responsible for the almost systematic relapse of the tumor, inducing the death of patients.

Calcium as a second messenger is a major player in the regulation of cellular processes. Dysregulation of calcium signaling has been described in cancers and some calcium channels are markers of poor or good prognosis.

Laboratory results suggest the involvement of calcium channels, TRPC3 and TRPC6, in calcium influx and the regulation of self-renewal and proliferation of human glioblastoma stem cells. The aim of the internship is to clarify the role of these channels in the calcium homeostasis of cancer stem cells using a pharmacological approach and gene invalidation by crispr/cas9. In addition, the involvement of these channels in migration/invasion will also be evaluated by different microscopy techniques.