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Aurélien Roux

Biochemistry Department, University of Geneva

About Aurélien Roux

Aurélien Roux is a Full Professor at the University of Geneva. His main interest is to study the role of lipid membrane mechanical properties in several cell processes, from endocytosis to cytokinesis. As a PhD student, he worked in collaboration with cell biologists (Bruno Goud’s lab, Curie Institute, Paris) and physicists (Patricia Bassereau’s lab, Curie Institute, Paris) in order to understand how membrane properties (e.g. bending rigidity, tension, and composition) facilitate or interfere with various stages of membrane traffic within cells. His continuing interest in membrane fission led him to pursue post-doctoral work in Pietro de Camilli’s laboratory, in order to study the mechanism of membrane tubule formation and fission by dynamin. From July 2007 to April 2010, as a Chargé de Recherche in the CNRS, France, he has been interested in how membrane properties affect the polymerization of dynamin onto a template. In June 2019, he was elected as EMBO Member.

His current research focuses is on the mechanical and dynamic properties of lipids and proteins involved in membrane traffic, so as to understand how proteins exploit the peculiar physical properties of lipid membranes in order to proceed with their function. Specifically, how do the essential physico-chemical abilities of membranes like deformation, fusion, fission, fluidity and permeability support cell functions involving membranes, like endocytosis, cell-division, cell migration and others.

Aurélien Roux is a member of the equal opportunity committee.

Read more about Aurélien Roux’s research on his lab website.

Contact

University of Geneva, Science II
Biochemistry Department
30, quai Ernest Ansermet
1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)22 379 35 32
Email: [email protected]

Publications

Caterina Tomba, Valeriy Luchnikov, Luca Barberi, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Aurélien Roux, “Epithelial cells adapt to curvature induction via transient active osmotic swelling”, Dev Cell. 2022 May 23;57(10):1257-1270.e5. Open access Dataset info [More Information]

José García-Calvo, Javier López-Andarias, Jimmy Maillard, Vincent Mercier, Chloé Roffay, Aurélien Roux, Alexandre Fürstenberg, Naomi Sakai, Stefan Matile, “HydroFlipper membrane tension probes: imaging membrane hydration and mechanical compression simultaneously in living cells”, Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 2086-2093. Open access Dataset info
[More Information]

Pau Guillamat, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Guillaume Pernollet, Karsten Kruse & Aurélien Roux, “Integer topological defects organize stresses driving tissue morphogenesis”, Nature Materials, 2022. [More Information]

Loewith Robbie, Roux Aurélien, Pertz Olivier, “Chemical-Biology-derived in vivo Sensors: Past, Present, and Future”, CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, Volume 75, Number 12, 2021. Open access [More Information]

Assies Lea, García-Calvo José, Piazzolla Francesca, Sanchez Samantha, Kato Takehiro, Reymond Luc, Goujon Antoine, Colom Adai, López-Andarias Javier, Straková Karolína, Mahecic Dora, Mercier Vincent, Riggi Margot, Jiménez-Rojo Noemi, Roffay Chloé, Licari Giuseppe, Tsemperouli Maria, Neuhaus Frederik, Fürstenberg Alexandre, Vauthey Eric, Hoogendoorn Sascha, Gonzalez-Gaitan Marcos, Zumbuehl Andreas, Sugihara Kaori, Gruenberg Jean, Riezman Howard, Loewith Robbie, Manley Suliana, Roux Aurelien, Winssinger Nicolas, Sakai Naomi, Pitsch Stefan, Matile Stefan, “Flipper probes for the community”, CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, Volume 75, Number 12, 2021. Open access [More Information]

Chloé Roffay, Guillaume Molinard, Kyoohyun Kim, Marta Urbanska, Virginia Andrade, Victoria Barbarasa, Paulina Nowak, Vincent Mercier, José García-Calvo, Stefan Matile, Robbie Loewith, Arnaud Echard, Jochen Guck, Martin Lenz, and Aurélien Roux, “Passive coupling of membrane tension and cell volume during active response of cells to osmosis”, [More Information]

Noemi Jiménez-Rojo, Manuel D. Leonetti, Valeria Zoni, Adai Colom, Suihan Feng, Namrata R. Iyengar, Stefan Matile, Aurélien Roux, Stefano Vanni, Jonathan S. Weissman, Howard Riezman, “Conserved Functions of Ether Lipids and Sphingolipids in the Early Secretory Pathway”, Current Biology, 5;30(19):3775-3787.e7, 2020. Open access. Dataset GEO. Dataset Yareta. [More Information]

Pau Guillamat, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Karsten Kruse, Aurélien Roux, “Integer topological defects of cell monolayers: Mechanics and flows”, Phys Rev E. 2021 Jan;103(1-1):012405. Open access [More Information]

Pfitzner A-K, Mercier V, Jiang X, Moser von Filseck J, Baum B, Saric A, Roux A, “An ESCRT-III Polymerization Sequence Drives Membrane Deformation and Fission”, Cell, 182, 1–16, 2020. Open access. Dataset info “Data: An ESCRT-III polymerization sequence drives membrane deformation and fission“. [More Information]

García-Calvo J., Meillard J., Fureraj I., Strakova K., Colom A., Mercier V., Roux A., Vauthey E., Sakai N., Fürstenberg A., Matile S., “Fluorescent Membrane Tension Probes for Super-Resolution Microscopy: Combining Mechanosensitive Cascade Switching with Dynamic-Covalent Ketone Chemistry”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 142, 28, 12034–12038, 2020. Dataset info. [More Information]

Galli V, Sadhu KK, Masi D, Saarbach J, Roux A*, Winssinger N*, “Caprin-1 Promotes Cellular Uptake of Nucleic Acids with Backbone and Sequence Discrimination”, Helvetica Chimica Acta 2020, 103:e1900255. Free access. Dataset info: “Caprin-1 promotes cellular uptake of nucleic acids with backbone and sequence discrimination“ [More Information]

Oberhauser L, Granziera S, Colom A, Goujon A, Lavallard V, Matile S, Roux A, Brun T, Maechler P., “Palmitate and oleate modify membrane fluidity and kinase activities of INS-1E beta-cells alongside altered metabolism-secretion coupling”, Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res 2020, 1867:118619. [More Information]

Moser von Filseck J, Barberi L, Talledge N, Johnson IE, Frost A, Lenz M, Roux A. “Anisotropic ESCRT-III architecture governs helical membrane tube formation”, Nat Commun 2020, 11:1516. Open access. Structural data is available from the Electron Microscopy Data Bank, accession numbers for electron density maps are EMD-10136, EMD-10137, EMD-10138, and EMD-10139 [More Information]

Anastasiya Trushko, Ilaria Di Meglio, Aziza Merzouki, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Shada Abuhattum, Jochen Guck, Kevin Alessandri, Pierre Nassoy, Karsten Kruse, Bastien Chopard, Aurélien Roux, “Buckling of epithelium growing under spherical confinement”, Dev Cell, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.07.019. Open access. Dataset info: “Buckling of epithelium growing under spherical confinement Trushko et al.“ [More Information]

Antoine Goujon, Adai Colom, Karolína Strakova, Vincent Mercier, Dora Mahecic, Suliana Manley, Naomi Sakai, Aurélien Roux, and Stefan Matile, “Mechanosensitive Fluorescent Probes To Image Membrane Tensionin Mitochondria, Endoplasmic Reticulum, and Lysosomes”, JACS, doi: 10.1021/jacs.8b13189, 2019. [More Information]

Vincent Mercier, Jorge Larios, Guillaume Molinard, Antoine Goujon, Stefan Matile, Jean Gruenberg, Aurélien Roux, “Endosomal membrane tension regulates ESCRT-III-dependent intra-lumenal vesicle formation”, Nature Cell Biology, 22, 947–959, 2020. Open access. Dataset info [More Information]

Radu Tanasescu, Ute Mettal, Adai Colom, Aurélien Roux and Andreas Zumbuehl, “Facile and rapid Formation of Giant Vesicles from Glass Beads”, Polymers, 10(1), 54; doi:10.3390/polym10010054, 2018. [More Information]

Galli V, Sebastian R, Moutel S, Ecard J, Perez F, Roux A., “Uncoupling of dynamin polymerization and GTPase activity revealed by the conformation-specific nanobody dynab”, Elife, 2017, doi: 10.7554/eLife.25197. [More Information]

Hohendahl A, Talledge N, Galli V, Shen PS, Humbert F, De Camilli P, Frost A, Roux A., “Structural inhibition of dynamin-mediated membrane fission by endophilin”, Elife. 2017 Sep 21;6. pii: e26856. doi: 10.7554/eLife.26856. [More Information]

Mierzwa BE, Chiaruttini N, Redondo-Morata L, von Filseck JM, König J, Larios J, Poser I, Müller-Reichert T, Scheuring S, Roux A, Gerlich DW, “Dynamic subunit turnover in ESCRT-III assemblies is regulated by Vps4 to mediate membrane remodelling during cytokinesis”, Nat Cell Biol. 2017 Jul;19(7):787-798. [More Information]

Verolet Q., Dal Molin M., Colom A., Roux A., Guénée L., Sakai N., Matile S., “Twisted Push-Pull Probes with Turn-On Sulfide Donors”, Helv. Chim. Acta, 100, e1600328, 2017. [More Information]

Colom A., Redondo-Morena L., Chiaruttini N., Roux A.*, Scheuring S.*, “Dynamic remodeling of the dynamin helix during membrane constriction”, Proceedings the National Academy of Sciences USA, online publication May 2017 (*co-last authors). [More Information]

Alessandri K., Feyeux M., Gurchenkov B., Delgado C., Trushko A., Krause K. H., Vignjević D., Nassoy P., Roux A., “A 3D printed microfluidic device for production of functionalized hydrogel microcapsules for culture and differentiation of human Neuronal Stem Cells (hNSC)”, Lab Chip, (2016),16, 1593-1604. [More Information]

Saleem M., Morlot S., Hohendahl A., Manzi J., Lenz M., Roux A. “A balance between membrane elasticity and polymerization energy sets the shape of spherical clathrin coats”. Nat Commun., Feb 19;6:6249. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7249, (2015). [More Information]

Chuard N., Gasparini G., Roux A., Sakai N., Matile S., “Cell-Penetrating Poly(disulfide)s: The Dependence of Activity, Depolymerization Kinetics and Intracellular Localization on Their Length”, Org. Biomol. Chem., 13, 64-67, (2015). (invited contribution to 2 special issues). [More Information]

Dal Molin M., Verolet Q., Colom A., Letrun R., Derivery E., Gonzalez-Gaitan M., Vauthey E., Roux A., Sakai N., Matile S. “Fluorescent Flippers for Mechanosensitive Membrane Probes”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 137, 568-571, (2015). [More Information]

Chiaruttini N., Redondo-Morata L., Colom A., Humbert F., Lenz M., Simon Scheuring S., Roux A. “Relaxation of Loaded ESCRT-III Spiral Springs Drives Membrane Deformation” , Cell 163, Issue 4, 866–879, 5 (November 2015). [More Information]