Christophe Pierreux

Major achievements

• Demonstration that the pancreas and thyroid develop by forming a 3D mass of non-polarized epithelial cells, which progressively regain polarity.
• Demonstration that localized expression of VEGFA regionalizes the development of blood vessel, and ultimately instruct pancreas differentiation
• Identification of environmental cues (VEGFA, BMP, EVs) and mechanisms controlling the differentiation of pancreatic ducts and thyroid follicles.

Question

How do epithelial cells interact with the microenvironment during organ shaping and homeostasis, and how is this reciprocal communication system affected in epithelial diseases ?

Research focus

Our body is composed of several cell types, such as epithelial, endothelial, stromal, immune, muscular and nerve cells which are the building blocks of our tissues and organs. Evolutionary optimized association between these cells ensure tissue homeostasis via nutrients distribution, waste products elimination and intercellular communications. We know little about how cells communicate during organ development, homeostasis and in diseases.

Christophe Pierreux and his team investigate intercellular communications involved in epithelial organ shaping, homeostasis and diseases. Tissue homeostasis and function rely on epithelial cells but also on various cell types present in the epithelial microenvironment and providing support, nutrition and defense. Using tissue imaging and cellular and molecular characterization of genetically-engineered mouse models, the lab aims to identify local epithelial niches, to decipher the physical and biochemical interactions between epithelial cells and their microenvironment, and to understand how these niches and interactions are altered in cancer and inflammation. Specifically, the group focuses on the vascular and immune microenvironment of the pancreas and thyroid gland. Besides this fundamental research aiming at advancing knowledge on tissue homeostasis, the laboratory has a strong commitment to develop innovative 3D and multicellular culture systems to better investigate and understand cellular interactions within specific microenvironments or test the effect of drugs and medicines in local niches.

Through their work on intercellular communication between epithelial cells and the vascular and immune microenvironment, researchers in the Pierreux lab seek to improve the understanding of the mechanisms that ensure tissue homeostasis and that are lost or hijacked in cancer.

Christophe Pierreux obtained his Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Namur (Belgium) in 1994, after a 6-month training in the lab of Dr. Mike Waterfield in London. He then joined the group of Dr. Guy Rousseau and Frédéric Lemaigre at the de Duve Institute, UCLouvain (Belgium), where he obtained his PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 1998 working on extracellular control of gene expression in the liver. He moved to London to work with Dr. Caroline Hill at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund as a postdoctoral fellow, investigating TGFb/Smad intracellular signaling. After two years, Christophe came back to UCLouvain and continued his postdoctoral training in the group of Rousseau and Lemaigre, where he developed several ex vivo culture systems to investigate the role of the transcription factor HNF-6 in epithelial organization of the pancreas. In 2007, he was appointed Research Associate of the F.R.S-FNRS, and Group leader at de Duve Institute in the pole of Cell Biology led by Dr. Pierre Courtoy. In 2015, he became the head of the pole of Cell Biology, Professor in Histology and Cell Biology in 2019 and full Professor in 2023.

Honors

• 2019 - Treasurer and board member of the Belgian Society for Extracellular Vesicles
• 2018 - Alvarenga de Piauhy prize 2017, Académie Royale de Médecine
• 2016 - Treasurer and board member of the Royal Belgian Society for Cell and Developmental Biology
• 2010 - Prix du concours ordinaire de la première section de l'Académie Royale de Médecine
• 1998 - Young investigators award, belgian society of endocrinology

Affiliations

• Group Leader, de Duve Institute
• Full Professor, UCLouvain