Liliane Michalik received her PhD from the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg in 1993, for work on microtubule-associated proteins in the group of Jean-François Launay, INSERM. In 1994, she joined the group of Walter Wahli at UNIL for her post-doctoral training, during which she initiated a research project aimed at elucidating the roles of the nuclear hormone receptors PPARs in skin homeostasis and repair. Between 1996 and 2002, she persued her research in the same field as Maître Assistant, then Maître d’Enseignement et de Recherche at UNIL. She arrived at the Center for Integrative Genomics in 2003 as Maître d'Enseignement et de Recherche, became MER-privat docent in 2008, and is associate professor since 2018.
skin repair, UV induced skin cancer, angiogenesis, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors.
INTERVIEWRESEARCH REPORT 2015-2016
Research summary
Cells in our body must adapt to a constantly changing environment. They continually receive a whole repertoire of cues that our genome translates into cell responses by changing gene expression. To maintain appropriate cell responses, and thereby to maintain our body integrity, the control of gene expression is crucial, as misregulated gene expression programs can cause a broad range of diseases, including cancers.
Our overall goal is to understand how our cells integrate environmental cues and how they respond by adapting gene transcription. In this purpose, we study how the skin, our largest interface with the environment, responds to insults like mechanical injuries, allergens or sunlight Ultra Violet (UV) rays (a major environmental cue and a complete carcinogen). Notably, we explore how the nuclear hormone receptors PPARs control gene expression and skin cell responses to these environmental insults.
PPARs are ligand activated transcription factors that sense cues and transform them into transcriptional responses. As nuclear hormone receptors, they are activated by natural endogenous agonists, but can also be regulated by synthetic agonists or antagonists, what makes them very attractive drugable targets. We study PPAR-dependent regulations of skin responses to insults and of UV-induced skin cancers using genetically modified mice, organ and cell culture models, as well as genomic approaches.
Representative publications
Identification of a novel PPARβ/δ/miR-21-3p axis in UV-induced skin inflammation.
Degueurce G., D'Errico I., Pich C., Ibberson M., Schütz F., Montagner A., Sgandurra M., Mury L., Jafari P., Boda A. et al., 2016. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 8 (8) pp. 919-936. Peer-reviewed.
[URN] [DOI] [WoS] [Pmid] [serval:BIB_EC0CAB165489]
Endothelial, but not smooth muscle, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β/δ regulates vascular permeability and anaphylaxis.
Wawrzyniak M., Pich C., Gross B., Schütz F., Fleury S., Quemener S., Sgandurra M., Bouchaert E., Moret C., Mury L. et al., 2015. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 135 (6) pp. 1625-1635.e5. Peer-reviewed.
[DOI] [WoS] [Pmid] [serval:BIB_1ED6EDEE8520]
Src is activated by the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β/δ in ultraviolet radiation-induced skin cancer.
Montagner A., Delgado M.B., Tallichet-Blanc C., Chan J.S., Sng M.K., Mottaz H., Degueurce G., Lippi Y., Moret C., Baruchet M. et al., 2014. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 6 (1) pp. 80-98.
[URN] [DOI] [WoS] [Pmid] [serval:BIB_61D2EDA76529]
PPARs at the crossroads of lipid signaling and inflammation.
Wahli W., Michalik L., 2012. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, 23 (7) pp. 351-363.
[DOI] [WoS] [Pmid] [serval:BIB_EA74394CACCD]
The nuclear hormone receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor beta/delta potentiates cell chemotactism, polarization, and migration.
Tan N.S., Icre G., Montagner A., Bordier-ten-Heggeler B., Wahli W., Michalik L., 2007. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 27 (20) pp. 7161-7175. Peer-reviewed.
[DOI] [WoS] [Pmid] [serval:BIB_A57EC9DCD756]
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Carine Winkler - Technician Carine obtained her Master of Science at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. From 2003 to 2006 she worked in the group of Prof. A. Kato in the Department of of Basic Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva. She joined the CIG in 2007. |
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Nhan Thanh Nguyen - Post-doctoral Fellow Nhan Thanh Nguyen finished her PhD study on the role of the transcription factor ZNF217 in tumorigenesis under the supervision of Prof. Pascale Cohen and Dr. Julie Vendrell at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon. Then she followed my 2-year postdoctoral research in the team of Dr. Florence Cammas, Cancer Research Center of Montpellier, where she worked on the role of Heterochromatin protein 1 in the stability of common fragile sites. In April, she will join the research group of Dr. Liliane Michalik as a postdoc. Her project will focus on the roles of PPAR isoforms in skin cancer progression in response to environmental cues. |
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Céline Lukowicz - Post-doctoral Fellow After graduating in biology and pharmacological innovation, Céline worked in Dr. Hervé Guillou’s team during her PhD in Integrative Toxicology and Metabolism at the Institute for Agricultural Research, University of Toulouse (France) till July 2018. Her PhD research project focused on the sexually dimorphic role of the nuclear receptor CAR (Constitutive Androstane Receptor) in energy homeostasis and xenobiotic detoxication. She investigated the metabolic role of the nuclear receptor CAR and the long-term effect of a chronic dietary exposure to pesticides in vivo, with a special emphasis on the role of CAR on the sexually dimorphic deleterious effects of this pesticide cocktail. At the CIG, her postdoctoral project is to investigate the mechanism underlying the initiation of a pro-tumorigenic cascade in response to UV insults in skin cells. |
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Paris Jafari - Research Scientist Paris Jafari is a new scientist in the group of Prof. Michalik at CIG, moving from the University of UTAH where she was a faculty at the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Paris has a Pharm D. degree from Iran and she has done a PhD thesis in “Life Sciences” at the University of Lausanne, followed by a postdoc in cell therapy at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), and a fellowship at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Harvard Medical School. Her main subject of interest is cutaneous biology and cell therapy of burns and wounds. At CIG, she will be exploring the role of miRNAs in wound healing and regeneration. |
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Stéphanie Claudinot - Senior Research Assistant Stéphanie Claudinot is joining the group of Pr Michalik at CIG in January 2022 as a scientist. She is also the 3R Node coordinator for the Faculty of Biology and Medicine (UNIL-CHUV) and is the manager of the germ-free animal facility at the CHUV. After a Ph.D. of Cellular and Molecular Biology of the Development of the University Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI, performed at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and the EPFL, she worked as a post-doc at the CHUV on epithelial stem cell biology, and especially on the plasticity of epithelial cells in the skin microenvironment. She then joined the lab of Pr Fasel at the Department of Biochemistry (UNIL) and worked on cutaneous leishmaniasis. As a scientist, her main interests are epithelial cell culture, cell transplantation, and skin biology. As 3R coordinator, she is a member of the executive board of the 3R Competence Centre (Bern). She is in charge of implementing communication, education, and research about 3Rs and alternatives in animal experimentation in the UNIL-CHUV institutions. |
