T3S-1124 - UMR-S 1124
Université de Paris
Campus Saint-Germain-des-Près
45 rue des Saints Pères
75270 Paris Cedex 06

Fax : +33 (0) 1 42 86 38 68

François Etienne

Paris Descartes Engineer
Degeneration and plasticity of the locomotor system

francois.etienne@-Code to remove to avoid SPAM-u-paris.fr
+33 1 42 86 38 70, room P452

François Etienne, engineer at the University Paris Descartes, is interested in mechanobiology and more specifically in cellular mechanotransduction. He is the manager of the platform “Mechanical Stress” and associated projects. He also is responsible for the development of projects related to the intervertebral disc.

Specialized in material sciences (University of Rouen), François Etienne has dedicated himself to molecular biophysics since joining the University Paris Descartes as assistant engineer in 1997. He has expertise in the characterization and the determination of the nature of lipid-lipid interactions in biomimetic membranes such as “Langmuir” and multi-lamellar vesicles. He obtained a doctorate in molecular biophysics from the University Paris Descartes in 2005. Wishing to expand his expertise to the field of living organisms by working at the cellular and tissular levels, he joined the team of Prof. François Rannou in 2009 after having obtained an engineer position.

Now Francois Etienne devotes himself entirely to the investigation of cellular mechanotransduction. His activities as manager of the “Mechanical Stress” platform, have led him to develop further this area of research by assisting and directing users in their projects.

These projects focus on the study of the responses to mechanical stress of cells that are derived from diverse tissues: articular chondrocytes, osteocytes, oligodendrocytes. He elaborates the characteristics of the mechanical stress to be applied (the signal form, intensity, frequency and duration) based on the anatomical origin of the sample, the context (physiological, pathological or accidental) and the response to be investigated.

An important part of his activities is devoted to the technical development of the platform, in particular to the development of systems to study the compression of cells that are cultured in 3D matrices and to real-time imaging of cells that are subjected to stretching in 2D culture.

He also ensures the development and monitoring of projects related to the intervertebral disc: collection of samples of human discs that are obtained during surgery (lumbar arthrodesis), investigation of the effect of microgravity on murine discs (CNES project).

Recent Publications

Articles

• Mechanical loading activates the YAP/TAZ pathway and chemokine expression in the MLO-Y4 osteocyte-like cell line.
  Zarka M, Etienne F, Bourmaud M, Szondi D, Schwartz JM, Kampmann K, Helary C, Rannou F, Haÿ E, Cohen-Solal M : Lab Invest, 2021
• Aging Cartilage in Wild-Type Mice: An Observational Study.
  Akoum J, Tahiri K, Corvol MT, Borderie D, Étienne F, Rannou F, Nguyen C : Cartilage, 2020
• Mechanical Stretch of High Magnitude Provokes Axonal Injury, Elongation of Paranodal Junctions, and Signaling Alterations in Oligodendrocytes.
  Chierto E, Simon A, Castoldi F, Meffre D, Cristinziano G, Sapone F, Carrete A, Borderie D, Etienne F, Rannou F, Morrison B, Massaad C, Jafarian-Tehrani M : Mol Neurobiol, 2018
• Hydrogel films and coatings by swelling-induced gelation.
  Moreau D, Chauvet C, Etienne F, Rannou FP, Corté L : Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2016
• Interaction of the alpha-helical H6 peptide from the pro-apoptotic protein tBid with cardiolipin.
  Petit PX, Dupaigne P, Pariselli F, Gonzalvez F, Etienne F, Rameau C, Bernard S : FEBS J, 2009
• Cardiolipin packing ability studied by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction.
  Etienne F, Roche Y, Peretti P, Bernard S : Chem Phys Lipids, 2007