Thesis – Julie BAS

Role of tuft cells in gastrointestinal immunity and gastric tumorigenesis.

Jury

• Eliette TOUATI, Research Director , Pasteur Institute of Paris, Paris, Reviewer
• Hugues LELOUARD, DR, CIML Marseille – Marseille, Reviewer
• Sandrine MENARD, Research Scientist, INRA Toulouse – Toulouse, Examiner
• Valérie DARDALHON, Research Scientist, IGMM Montpellier – Montpellier, Examiner
• François GERBE, Research Director, Institute of Functional Genomics – Montpellier, Thesis Co-Supervisor
• Philippe Jay, Research Director, Institute of Functional Genomics – Montpellier, Thesis Supervisor

Résumé

Half of the world’s population carries the Helicobacter bacterium, which is the predominant risk factor for stomach cancer. It is essential to better understand how this bacterium causes tumors to form in order to inhibit the progression of this disease at an early stage. Our team has identified a type of cell present in the stomach, called tuft cells, as responsible for the onset of chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis following Helicobacter infection. In fact, mice lacking tuft cells and infected with Helicobacter are all resistant to the development of tumors in the stomach. My project aims to understand why tuft cells have pro-tumor properties. My results show that one of these pro-tumor properties involves the establishment of an immune response that promotes the development of precancerous lesions. The perspectives will be to transpose these results to human in order to develop innovative therapies.