Christel Vérollet

Biography

Christel Vérollet received her PhD in Cell Biology from Toulouse University in 2007. Her dissertation work in the M. Wright and then A. Merdes lab was funded, in part, by the Pierre Fabre laboratories and dealt with the characterization of protein complexes involved in microtubules organization during mitosis, in Drosophila (Verollet et al, J Cell Biol, 2006 & 2009). Her keen interest in cell cytoskeleton organization led her to join the I. Maridonneau-Parini lab at IPBS, Toulouse, where she conducted work in the characterization of HIV-1 infection of macrophages in terms of fusion into multinucleated giant cells and cell migration (Verollet et al, J Immunol, 2010). In particular, she showed that HIV-1-infected macrophages display high motility in 3D matrices, favoring virus dissemination (Verollet et al, Blood, 2015). In parallel, Christel worked on osteoclasts biology, showing the role of Hck in osteoclast migration and bone degradation (Verollet et al, Faseb J, 2013). Her postdoctoral fellowships (2008-12) were sponsored by ANRS and Sidaction awards. In 2012, she was recruited as a permanent researcher by INSERM and she obtained an ANR JCJC grant in 2016. She investigates the role of macrophages in HIV-1 pathogenesis and HIV-1/Mtb co-infection (Souriant et al, Cell Rep, 2019; Dupont et al, Elife, 2020; Mascarau et al, J Cell Biol, 2022) as well as the biology of osteoclasts in physiological and pathological contexts (Portes et al, Elife, 2022; Raynaud-Messina et al, PNAS, 2018; Dufrançais et al., J Cell Biol, 2025). Since 2021, she co-leads the team “Phagocyte architecture and dynamics” at IPBS with Renaud Poincloux. She obtained her HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) in 2018 and became « directrice de recherche” (DR2 INSERM) in 2022. She obtained several grants as a PI from ANR, ANRS I MIE, Sidaction, FRM, …

Christel is member of the Scientific Committee at École Doctorale Biologie-Santé Biotechnologies (N°151 Biologie/Santé, Toulouse), member of the evaluation committee of Toulouse Initiative for Research’s Impact (TIRIS), and director of the BSL3 facility at IPBS. She is the president of the “Societé Française de Biologie des Tissus Minéralisés” (SFBTM) since 2025, member of the Css14 ANR panel committee and serves as an editor of several internationally peer-reviewed journals. She mentored 11 PhD students, around 20 Master students and visiting/foreign students, in particular in the context of the International Research Project with Argentina that she co-leads with Dr. Geanncarlo Lugo. She has been invited to prestigious meetings such as a Gordon conference and 2 Cold Spring Harbor meetings.