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Previous page Alexandre BACQ Postdoctorant, PhD Team "Genetics and physiopathology of epilepsy" 01.57.27.43.40 [alexandre.bacq@icm-institute.org]

Biography

Alexandre Bacq obtained his phD in University Pierre and Marie Curie in 2012. Then, he did a first postdoc in Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne for 4 years. During his PhD, he worked in Bruno Giros’ laboratory, under supervision of Sophie Gautron, at IBPS, Paris, where he studied a novel monoamine reuptake transporter: the organic cation transporter 2 (OCT2). He could show (Bacq et al., 2012, Mol. Psy.), that this low-affinity transporter participates to the clearance of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain. He showed also that OCT2 is implicated in mood-related behaviors and in antidepressant response. Finally, he proved that this transporter plays a key role in response to stress, via the regulation of GSK3 intracellular pathway (Courousse et al., 2015, Mol. Psy.). Then, he joined the Laboratory of Prof. Carmen Sandi, at EPFL, where he studied other mouse models showing neurodevelopmental alterations, genetically- or environmentally-induced, and their link to aggressive behaviors. Thus, he explored the link between deficits of connexions to amygdala and the development of psychopathic-like behaviors (Bacq et al., 2018, Mol. Psy.). He could also rescue these behavioral deficits using pharmacological and genetic approaches, either by treating adult animals or during their development.

Research work

Depdc5 mouse model Alexandre Bacq joined the team Genetic and physiopathology of familial epilepsies in the Brain and Spine Institute in 2017, where he will investigate the neurodevelopmental role of genes implicated in focal epilepsy, as well as their role in mTOR intracellular pathway.

Publications

2012   Bacq A., Balasse L., Biala G., Guiard B.P., Gardier A.M., Schinkel A., Louis F., Vialou V., Martres M-P., Chevarin C., Hamon M., Giros B. and Gautron S. “Organic cation transporter 2 controls brain norepinephrine and serotonin clearance and antidepressant response” Molecular Psychiatry (doi: 10.1038/mp.2011.87)
2013   Nguyen H.T., Guiard B.P., Bacq A., David D.J., David I., Quesseveur G., Gautron S., Sanchez C. and Gardier A.M. “Enhancement of cortical extracellular 5-HT and NE outflow by escitalopram in awake freely moving mice” British Journal of Pharmacology (doi: 10.1111/j.1476‐5381.2012.01850.x)
2014   Couroussé T., Bacq A., Belzung C.,  Guiard B.P., Balasse L., Louis F., Le Guisquet A.M., Gardier A.M., Schinkel A., Giros B. and Gautron S. “Brain organic cation transporter 2 controls response and vulnerability to stress and GSK3b signaling” Molecular Psychiatry (doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.86)
2015   Kohl C., Wang X.D., Grosse J., Fournier C., Harbich D., Westerholz S., Li J.T., Bacq A., Sippel C., Hausch F., Sandi C., Schmidt M.V. “Hippocampal neuroligin-2 links early-life stress with impaired social recognition and increased aggression in adult mice” Psychoneuroendocrinology (doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.02.016)
2018   Ribierre T, Deleuze C, Bacq A, Baldassari S, Marsan E, Chipaux M, Muraca G, Roussel D, Navarro V, Leguern E, Miles R, Baulac S. “Second-hit mosaic mutation in mTORC1 repressor DEPDC5 causes focal cortical dysplasia-associated epilepsy.” J Clin Invest. (doi: 10.1172/JCI99384)
2018   Bacq A., Astori S., Gebara E., Tang W., Silva BA, Sanchez-Mut J., Grosse J., Guillot I., Zanoletti O., Maclachlan C., Knott G., Gräff J. and Sandi C. “Amygdala GluN2B-NMDAR dysfunction mediates St8Sia2 deficit-induced pathological aggression” Mol Psychiatry (doi: 10.1038/s41380-018-0132-3)