Topics : Role of calcium signaling in Physiology and human physiopathology

Coming from a Masters in Physiology and Cellular Biology with a specialization in electrophysiology at the University of Poitiers, my interest has focused on calcium signaling at the cellular level. My first research work concerned the evolution of calcium signals and transporters during myogenesis and in particular the control of myoblast fusion by calcium signaling. I subsequently worked at the University of Ghent in Belgium on the reorganization of actin by actin-binding proteins modulated among other things by calcium.

Since my recruitment at the CNRS my interest has focused on the relationships between the cytoskeleton and calcium signaling, which I have studied in the model of the skeletal muscle cell. This led me to work on scaffolding protein making the link between cytoskeleton and ion channels, and building signaling complexes. I have highlighted the regulatory functions exerted by dystrophin on calcium homeostasis and channels in skeletal muscle cells. This research, supported by the French Association against Myopathies, has led us to focus on the cationic TRPC channels and their regulation by the adapter protein, Alpha-syntrophin, linked to dystrophin. This research confirms the importance of deregulation of calcium inputs in cell death due to the absence of dystrophin in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. At the same time, I conducted collaborative work on the study of signaling pathways regulating the actin cytoskeleton and cell migration of cancer cells in response to 3F semaphorin (collaboration with J. Roche), or in response to expression of the RhoA-activating oncogene bcr-abl in hematopoietic precursors (collaboration with Dr N. Bourmeyster). From 2014, I turned to the study of calcium channels and pathways in hematopoietic stem cells and neural stem cells. The modification of the « store-operated » calcium system is being studied with Nicolas Bourmeyster in hematopoietic precursors in the case of leukemias linked to the expression of bcr-abl. I am also interested with Valérie Coronas in the role of certain calcium channels in response to microenvironmental factors in the biology of neural stem cells and glioma initiator cells. We are interested in the self-renewal properties and also the invasive aspect of these brain cancer cells. I am also involved in the study of TRP cation channels in migrating or invasive cancer cells, through projects led by Aubin Penna on the migration mechanisms of invasive melanoma cells.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bruno-Constantin