Sylvain was trained as a polymer physico-chemist with a focus on the dynamics of confined polymer chains. He changed his field to cell mechanobiology after his PhD and joined the Aix Marseille University (France) as a CNRS postdoctoral fellow. He worked with Olivier Théodoly to study the deformation of deformed immune cells squeezed in microfluidic devices. Then he joined the Kevin Kit Parker’s lab at Harvard University (USA) to work on neuronal mechanics with magnetic tweezers. He is fascinated by integrative tissue dynamics, cytoskeletal mechanics and nuclear mechanotransduction. He started his group at the University of Mons (Belgium) in 2011 and was appointed Associate Professor in 2016. He was invited visiting Professor in the Beth Pruitt’s lab at Stanford University (USA) in 2017 and in the Tsuyoshi's lab at MBI (Singapore) in 2023. He is now President of the Research Institute for Biosciences at the University of Mons.

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Chargée de Recherches FNRS

Marine has developed photopolymerized corrugated hydrogels to investigate the role of the substrate curvature in the remodeling of the cytoskeletal architecture, with a particular interest for mechanosensitive proteins and nuclear deformations. She works on the dynamic modulation of the matrix curvature in epithelial systems.

> Internship in the Discher’s lab at UPENN (USA) > Postdoc research associate in Aurélien Roux lab (Geneva, Switzerland)

Postdoctoral Researcher (Win2Wal project)

Marie reproduces the complex architecture of complex tissues such as the skin with 3D soft hydrogels of precise and controlled physico-chemical properties. She has a strong interest in the dynamics of epithelial tissues and nuclear mechanics.

Chargée de Recherches FNRS at ULB

Danahe is co-supervised with Prof Maud Martin at Laboratory of Neurovascular Signaling of the University Libre de Brussels (ULB). She works on the role of microtubules in endothelial cell morphogenesis using MT targeting agents.

> Internship: Charras' group at UCLondon (UK)
> Posdoc research associate: Weitz's lab (Harvard, USA) and Alsteen's lab (Louvain, BE)

Collab with Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez

Giuseppe visited our lab during his PhD at Glasgow (Scotland) to work on cell mechanobiology using viscoelastic hydrogels. He investigated the impact of substrate stress relaxation on cell migration using viscoelastic hydrogels that mimic the complex rheological behaviour of many biological tissues which are soft and viscoelastic, exhibiting stress relaxation over time in response to a deformation. He is now a postdoc between IBEC (Barcelona) and UMONS.

FRIA PhD Researcher
Collaboration with David Brückner
(IST, Austria)

Yohalie’s research focus is nuclear squeezing during confined cancer cell migration. She would like to determine why metastatic breast cells migrate faster than their healthy counterpart. To this aim, Yohalie studies how confinement influences ATP consumption and chromatin compaction.
> internship in the Einar Hallberg’s lab at Stockholm (Sweden)

FNRS Research Fellow
Co-supervised with Mathieu Surin
(UMONS)

Alexandre would like to understand whether changing the chirality of the extracellular matrix proteins can modulate cellular functions. His long-term goal is to understand how molecular and supramolecular chirality can affect integrin-based mechanotransduction mechanisms involved in cell migration.

FNRS Research Fellow
Co-supervised with Mathieu Surin
(UMONS)

Maxime works on the development of DNA-based supramolecular responsive hydrogels for studying cell mechanobiology.

FRIA PhD Researcher
Co-supervised with Prof Patrick Flammang (UMONS)

Amandine studies the locomotion of sea stars by using evanescent waves to detect sticking tube feet. By recording the sea star movement, she quantifies the sticking tube feet dynamics, important morphological parameters and measure the sea star locomotion speed.
> Internship in the Stanislas Gorb’s lab at Kiel (Germany)

FRIA PhD Researcher
Collaboration with Charlotte Rivière
(Lyon)

Lucie studies how the physico-chemical properties of the tumor cell microenvironment can affect their migration and proliferation. To this aim, Lucie develops 2D and 3D viscoelastic matrices based on photoreticulated Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels. > Internship in the Pierre Nassoy’s lab at Bordeaux (France)

FRIA PhD Researcher
Collaboration with Tsuyoshi Hirashima (Singapore)
Co-supervised with Marine Luciano.

Zoé studies the collective behaviour of epithelial cells on corrugated hydrogels to determine how changes of local curvature can affect the collective migration of epithelial monolayers. She plays with different physico-chemical properties of hydrogels (stiffness, local curvature, etc.) to examine the role of the matrix properties on cell locomotion and the impact of the cell matrix properties on Erk wave propagation.

PhD Researcher (Win2Wal project)

As a bioengineer, Roxane aims to design hydrogel-based scaffolds to create advanced in vitro 3D human skin models. To this aim, Roxane develops photo-crosslinked gelatin hydrogels (GelMA) with complex physico-chemical properties.

Co-supervised with Bert Brône
(Hasselt University)

Amber investigates the relationship between cytoskeleton organization and microglial migration. Her approach will identify functional pathways that are evolutionarily conserved to control essential cytoskeletal rearrangements in phagocytic/macrophage-like cells, including microglia and hemocytes.

FRIA PhD candidate
Co-supervised with Marine Luciano

Rémi investigate the effet of the dynamic modulation of the curvature of epithelial tissues using a cutting-edge microsystem. He would like to determine how matrix curvature changes can modulate the fluidity of epithelial tissues.

Co-supervised with Stephanos Konstantinidis

Armand investigates how the nanotructuration of titanium dioxide surfaces can improve the behavior of neuronal cells.

Clara studies the role of the nucleus in 3D confined environments to determine how nuclear deformations can impede confined migration of epithelial cells.

Corentin would like to determine how physico-chemical properties of the extracellular matrix can trigger the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in epithelial cells.

Co-supervised with Mathieu Surin

Ingrid studies the behavior of epithelial cells in 3D DNA-based hydrogels with tunable physico-chemical properties.

Co-supervised with Mathieu Surin
Collaboration with Cristina Satriano (Catania)

Stefania comes from the Satriano's lab at the University of Catania and studies the behavior of DNA-coated nanoparticles on the behaviour of tumoral epithelial cells.

PhD Thesis in 2022 (FRIA)

> Currently postdoctoral associate in the Saudou’s lab at GINS (France)

PhD Thesis in 2022 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Xavier Trepat’s lab at IMEC (Spain)

PhD Thesis in 2019 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Jan Lammerding’s lab at Cornell University (USA)

PhD Thesis in 2019 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Pascal Silberzan’s group at Institut Curie (France)

PhD Thesis in 2018 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Guillaume Charras’ group at UCLondon (UK) > Visiting in the Beth Pruitt’s lab at Stanford University (USA) > Postdoc in the David Weitz’s lab at Harvard University (USA) > Postdoc in the David Alsteen’s lab at UCLouvain (Belgium)

PhD Thesis in 2017 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Stephanie Lacour’s lab at EPFL (Switzerland)

> Internship in the Blaise Yvert’s lab at CEA Grenoble (France)

> PhD Thesis in 2015 (FNRS)

> Internship in the Paul Jamey’s group at UPENN (USA)

PhD Thesis in 2014 (FRIA)

> Internship in the Atef Asnacios’ lab at MSC (Paris)

> Postdoc in the Kevin Kit Parker’s lab at Harvard University (USA)

Master Thesis in 2021

> Internship in the Olivier Théodoly’s lab at Aix-Marseille University (France)

Master Thesis in 2017

> Internship in the Adam Feinberg’s group at Carnegie-Mellon University (USA)

Master Thesis in 2015

> Internship in the David Kaplan’s lab at Tufts University (USA)

Master Thesis in 2014

> Internship in the Kristian Franze’s group at Cambridge (UK)

> PhD Thesis in the Theodoly’s lab (FR)

Master Thesis in 2013

> Internship in the Dufour’s group at Institut Curie (France) apparaît ici

Visiting scientist from the Kevin Kit Parker’s lab at Harvard University (USA)

Visiting from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France)