I have a longstanding interest in the mechanisms by which transcription factors and chromatin-associated enzymes control gene expression. As a PhD student in the Helin team at the IEO/IFOM in Milan, I contributed to the discovery and characterization of novel members of the E2F and DP family of transcription factors, namely E2F7, E2F8 and DP3 (EMBO Journal 2003, NAR 2005 and in JBC 2007).
As a postdoctoral fellow in the Dyson team at MGH/Harvard in Boston, I shed light on the roles of the histone demethylase LSD1 in the regulation of gene expression and heterochromatin homeostasis during Drosophila oogenesis and wing development (Current Biology 2007, Genes and Development 2011, Molecular Cell 2011). As a member of the Kellis team at MIT, I participated to the ModENCODE consortium efforts to annotate the functional elements of the Drosophila melanogaster genome (Science 2010).
As a group leader at the CBI (previously LBCMCP) in Toulouse, we have found novel interplay between dLsd1 and factors involved in transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation (Human Molecular genetics 2015, Mol Cell Biol, 2015, Frontiers in Cells and Dev Biol 2019). Additionally, we have shown that dLsd1 plays a crucial role in Transposable Element (TE) silencing in Drosophila ovaries and wing discs and that unrestricted TE expression/mobilization due to loss of dLSD1 affects organ size (NAR 2020, Communications Biology 2025). The current project aims to explore the molecular mechanisms by which chromatin regulates gene and TE expression and how altering these mechanisms can lead to developmental defects and infertility.