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Guillaume Van Niel

Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, France

Since 1998, Guillaume van Niel has investigated the molecular mechanisms regulating the generation and dynamics of the late endosomal system using cell biology methods combined with electron and light microscopy imaging. He is in particular interested in the balance between lysosomal degradation and secretion of exosomes from late endosomes and their relevance in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

During his Ph.D at the Necker institute (Paris, France), his work established the first report of extracellular vesicles (EVs) subpopulations secretion from non-hematopoeitic cells and and their role in antigen presentation. In 2003, at the Utrecht Medial Center (Utrecht, the Netherlands) he demonstrated the ubiquitination of MHC II molecules, a key post-translational modification for sorting to endosomes and exosomes in dendritic cells. In 2005, he joined the team of G. Raposo at the Curie Institute (Paris, France) and obtained a CNRS permanent position in 2008 to investigate sorting and processing mechanisms of physiological amyloid fibrils at endosomes of pigment cells. His recent work has used cutting edge imaging methods to visualize and investigate exosome secretion in live cells and to live track endogenous EVs life cycle in vivo in a zebrafish model. Actual president of the French SOciety of Extracellular vesicles, he received an achievement award form the ISEV in 2022. Since 2017, as team leader and research Director at CNRS, in Paris and now in Nantes, he is employing these imaging approaches in vitro and in zebrafish model to investigate the dynamic of the endolysosomal system and the relevance of EVs in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In parallel he is setting up an in vivo screening platform to establish zebrafish as a relevant preclinical model organism for applied EVs research.

 

Fun Fact:Between two cooking sessions, he likes spending his time between archery, cross-fit, manga's or comics.

1. van Niel G, Carter DRF, Clayton A, Lambert DW, Raposo G, Vader P. Challenges and directions in studying cell-cell communication by extracellular vesicles. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2022 doi: 10.1038/s41580-022-00460-3. Review.

Contribution: This review with experts of the field establishes the next technical and fundamental challenges to address to decipher EV-based communication.

 2.Verweij FJ, Balaj L, Boulanger CM, Carter DRF, Compeer EB, D'Angelo G, El Andaloussi S, Goetz JG, Gross JC, Hyenne V, Krämer-Albers EM, Lai CP, Loyer X, Marki A, Momma S, Nolte-'t Hoen ENM, Pegtel DM, Peinado H, Raposo G, Rilla K, Tahara H, Théry C, van Royen ME, Vandenbroucke RE, Wehman AM, Witwer K, Wu Z, Wubbolts R, van Niel G. The power of imaging to understand extracellular vesicle biology in vivo. Nature Methods. 2021 Sep;18(9):1013-1026. doi: 10.1038/s41592-021-01206-3. Epub 2021 Aug 26. PMID: 34446922 Review.

Contribution: This publication reviews the state of the art of the imaging approaches to study Extracellular vesicles. It is based on the ISEV workshop that G van Niel have organized the same year.

 

3. Verweij FJ, Revenu C, Arras G, Dingli F, Loew D, Pegtel DM, Follain G, Allio G, Goetz JG, Zimmermann P, Herbomel P, Del Bene F, Raposo G, van Niel G. Live Tracking of Inter-organ Communication by Endogenous Exosomes In Vivo. Dev Cell. 2019 Feb 25;48(4):573-589.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2019.01.004. Epub 2019 Feb 7. PubMed PMID: 30745143.  

Contribution: This original publication is the first demonstration that we can live-track the entire life cycle of endogenous EV in vivo at vesicle scale using zebrafish embryo. It establishes the intercellular lysosomes network and supported the trophic role of EV

4. van Niel G, D'Angelo G, Raposo G. Shedding light on the cell biology of extracellular vesicles. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2018 Jan 17. doi: 10.1038/nrm.2017.125. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PubMed PMID: 29339798.

Contribution: This review is now a reference for the EV field. It reviews the fundamental knowledge about the cell biology that supports the generation of Extracellular vesicles.

 5. van Niel G, Raposo G, Candalh C, Boussac M, Hershberg R, Cerf-Bensussan N, Heyman M. Intestinal epithelial cells secrete exosome-like vesicles. Gastroenterology. 2001 Aug;121(2):337-49. PubMed PMID:11487543

Contribution: First original work of the leader project. First description of Extracellular vesicles in non-hematopoeitic cells. First description of the secretion of distinct subpopulations of EV by a single cell type.