Congratulations to François for his PhD thesis

François Tyckaert is the first PhD student co-supervised by Henri-François Renard and myself.

Using state-of-the-art microscopy and cell biology techniques, François could show that CD166 is a clathrin- and dynamin-independent cargo internalized via a novel endocytic mechanism that involves the BAR domain protein endophilin-A3 and the extracellular lectin galectin-8. Additionally, he could demonstrate that the actin cytoskeleton and its regulatory GTPase Rac1 dynamically associate with CD166-positive endocytic carriers and that their perturbation strongly inhibits the uptake process. He also provided evidence that microtubules and kinesin molecular motors are required to potentiate the endoA3-dependent endocytosis of CD166.