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). This 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 a 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). From 2021, she co-leads the team “Phagocyte architecture and dynamics” at IPBS with Renault Poincloux. She obtained her HDR (Habilitation à Diriger de Recherches) in 2018 and recently became « directrice de recherche” (DR2 INSERM) in 2022.

Christel is member of the Scientific Committee at École Doctorale Biologie-Santé Biotechnologies (N°151 Biologie/Santé), Toulouse and director of the BSL3 facility at IPBS. She has been elected as a member of the counsel of the “Societé de Biologie Cellulaire de France” (SBCF) since 2020 and serves as an editor of the internationally peer-reviewed journals. She mentored 8 PhD students, more than 10 Master students and 4 visiting/foreign students.