Technical expertises

Lipid chemistry - analysis and synthesis: extraction of lipids from biological tissues (cell lines, adipose tissue, liver, muscle, tumors…), purification of lipids (phospholipids, triglycerides, ether-lipids, sterols…), qualitative and quantitative analyses of lipids and lipoproteins, synthesis of reconstituted High Density Lipoproteins (rHDL) and ether-lipids. Some MS analyses are conducted in partnership with ICOA « Institut de Chimie Organique et Analytique », team « Stratégies Analytiques, Interactions Moléculaires et Bioactifs » (UMR-CNRS 7311, Orléans).

Mitochondrial bioenergetics: studies on isolated mitochondria, permeabilized and whole cells, permeabilized skeletal muscle fibers, mitochondrial bioenergetics analyses (oxygen consumption, ATP synthesis, efficiency of ATP synthesis, membrane potential, ROS, Permeability Transition Pore…).

Single-cell electrophysiology: patch-clamp studies (« current-clamp » and « voltage-clamp » modes, « whole-cell» and « inside out » configurations), studies of different ion channels (NaV, BKCa, IKCa, SK3, SK2 and SK1, P2X, Orai, TRPC, TRAAK…) in expression systems (HEK293, COS, HeLa), in cancer and monocyte human and mouse cell lines, human lymphoblastoid cells, and primary neuronal culture (mouse hippocampus).

Cell biology: tests for 2D and 3D cancer cell invasiveness, single-cell or collective migration, proliferation and cell viability, fractionation and functional analyses of invadopodia, proteases activity in cell extracts, supernatants, in living and fixed cells, cell line and primary cultures…

Fluorescence imaging and spectrofluorimetry: calcium, sodium, protons, membrane potential, ROS.

Molecular biology: nucleic acids (RT-qPCR, plasmid amplification, site-directed mutagenesis, gene reporter assays) and proteins (western blotting, immunoprecipitation, membrane fractionation on sucrose gradients).

Animal models: xenogenic and syngenic orthotopic or ectopic graft models of breast cancer cells in immunodepressed or immunocompetent mice, NMU model of mammary carcinogenesis in rats, rat models of cancer cachexia, spontaneous models of mammary tumors (PyMT) in mice, transgenic, knock-out and tissue-specific knock-out animal models (PyMTTg, TRAMP, Caveolin-1, Caveolin-2, Caveolin-3).

Anatomopathology and Immunohistochemistry: anatomopathology and immunohistochemical analyses on different cancers (breast, prostate, colon…) of murine models or clinical samples from patients.