Marion Lechable

 

Adress:

Department of Zoology
NATWI-Gebäude, Etage: 07, Zimmer: 7/19

Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck

+43 512 507 51859
marion.lechable@uibk.ac.at

 

Current Research

I am studying the hydrozoan freshwater polyp Hydra, which is part of Cnidarians as a sister-group of Bilateria. Hydra is a powerful model in biology for axial patterning, regeneration studies and stem cell biology, and allows us to understand ancestral mechanisms diverged from early metazoans. This polyp reproduces asexually and has a strong regeneration ability thanks to a hydrozoan-specific multipotent stem cell population, called the interstitial stem cells. Dynamic of this stem cell population is very constant in terms of cell proliferation, movement and proportions of cell type during asexual reproduction. Stem cell decision-making in this simple model raise an interest to understand the underlying genetic regulation system. Two core regulators of stem cells are the Wnt/ β-Catenin signalling pathway and the Myc oncogene, which are both highly conserved through evolution. My PhD project aim to decipher these regulation mechanisms at cellular and molecular level in Hydra.

Schematic of the known molecular regulators of self-renewal and differentiation in the Hydra interstitial cell lineage. Positive and negative regulators are depicted in green and red, respectively. (Lechable et al., 2022)

Transgenic β-Catenin driving Actin Hydra

 

Doctoral programme

Aging, regeneration and drug research (ARDRE)

Funding

European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 847681.

Publications

• Lechable, M., Achrainer, M., Kruus, M., Salvenmoser, W., and Hobmayer, B. (2022) Molecular regulation of decision making in the interstitial stem cell lineage of Hydra revisited. In Advances in Aquatic Invertebrate Stem Cell Research. (L. Ballarin, B. Rinkevich, B. Hobmayer, Eds.) MDPI books, Basel (in press).

 

• Lechable, M., Jan, A., Duchene, A., Uveira, J., Weissbourd, B., Gissat, L., ... & Momose, T. (2020). An improved whole life cycle culture protocol for the hydrozoan genetic model Clytia hemisphaerica. Biology open, 9(11), bio051268.

 

• Coupé, S., Couvray, S., Lechable, M., Gaillard, S., & Dalvise, N. P. (2019). Telomere length as a biomarker for monitoring wild populations of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. Journal of Shellfish Research, 38(3), 665-670.

 

Conferences

• Lechable, M. Co-authors: Kitilit Kibet, M. ; Egger, B., Hartl, M. and Hobmayer, B. : Evolutionary dynamics of Myc gene family and functional conservation of an ancestral Hydra Myc protein. MARISTEM COST Action meeting, Padova, Italy, 2021-10-20.

 

• Lechable, M. and Pennati, A. : Regeneration research : Models for regeneration studies. European Researchers Night (online: https://youtu.be/Ho3aPKTa9aY?t=37639), 2021-09-24.

 

Scientific activities

Member of the organizing committee of the Life Science PhD Meeting Innsbruck since 2021. 

Curriculum vitae

 

2020 - today

PhD candidate – Evolutionary Developmental Biology team; Zoology

Institute“cWnt-Myc signaling in stem cells decision making and regeneration in Hydra

2018 - 2020

Engineer assistant – Cnidarian Developmental mechanism team; UMR7009 Developmental Biology Laboratory of Villefranche-sur-Mer (CNRS)

DNA repair genes in stem cells, jellyfish culturing optimization, transgenesis optimization, UV/oxidative stress effects

January – June 2018

Graduate internship – Cnidarian Developmental mechanism team; UMR 7009 Developmental Biology Laboratory of Villefranche-sur-Mer (CNRS)

Transgenic approaches to understand stem cell behavior and cell migration during embryogenesis and polyp rapid growth in Clytia hemisphaerica

April – July 2017

Graduate internship – Marine molecular biology team; PROTEE Laboratory of Toulon

qPCR assay in order to correlate telomeres length with age, environmental condition and several tissues in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

May – July 2016

Undergraduate internship – Host-parasite interaction team; Institute of Integrative biology and systems of Québec

Molecular approaches to detect and quantify environmental DNA of the parasite Schistocephalus solidus of the stickleback fish

April – July 2015

Undergraduate internship – Marine molecular biology team; PROTEE Laboratory of Toulon

Study of gene expression involved in a stress of the aquaculture sturgeon Acipenser baeri

 

Thesis Topic: cWnt-Myc signaling in stem cell decision making and regeneration

 Supervisor:

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bert Hobmayer
• Co-supervisors: Assoz. Prof. Dr. Ute Rothbächer
• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Pidder Jansen-Dürr

Resarch interest:

• Stem cell biology
• Cnidarian models
• Regeneration