Team members
 

Telomere Shortening in Cancer and Aging

Miguel GODINHO FERREIRA, Research Director, DR2 CNRS
 

Leader

Research Director, DR2 CNRS
Tel: +33 (0)4 93 37 77 75
Miguel Godinho Ferreira has expertise in telomere biology, cancer and ageing both in fission yeast and zebrafish. His postdoctoral research focused on the molecular mechanisms of cell division and how damaged DNA (stemming DNA replication and telomeres) signals to block cell division in normal cells and how this process is deregulated in cancer cells. This work resulted in a series of studies in chromosome biology and DNA repair (Ferreira et al. Mol Cell Biol 1999; Ferreira & Cooper Mol Cell, 2001; Ferreira & Cooper Genes & Dev, 2004). From 2006 until 2016, as an independent group leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Oeiras, Portugal, he focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying genome protection and their consequences (Carneiro et al. Nature 2010; Reis et al. EMBO J 2012; Avelar et al. Nat Comm 2013; Hentges et al. CellReports 2014). In 2009, Miguel decided to incorporate cancer research in his laboratory. Two events impelled him to take on this challenge using zebrafish as a model system: 1- the advent of zebrafish as a cancer model and his achievement in establishing zebrafish larvae as real-time and inexpensive Patient Derived Xenografts (PDX) for cancer therapy (Fior et al. PNAS 2017) and 2- showing that zebrafish telomerase mutants anticipate spontaneous cancer to early age similar to further old age phenotypes (Henriques et al. PLoS Genetics 2013; Carneiro et al. PLoS Genetics 2016). In 2017, Miguel joined the Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging of Nice (IRCAN), France. He was recruited to the CNRS and achieved the position of Directeur de Recherche 2ème Classe. This step will endow him with a congenial community interested in understanding how ageing contributes for cancer.
 

Current members

Postdoctoral Researcher
Tel: 0493377033
PEMAV Zebrafish platform manager, IE UCA
Tel: +33 (0)4 89 15 36 27
Postdoctoral Researcher, CR CNRS
Tel: +33 (0)4 89 15 36 27
Postdoctoral Researcher, CR UCA
Tel: +33 (0)4 89 15 36 27
PhD student
Tel: 0493377033
Technician, TCN Inserm
Tel: +33 (0)4 93 37 77 39
 
Research teams