Our current team

Laurent BECK (DR2 Inserm) is a specialist in mammalian phosphate transport and now leads the world’s leading team on PiT protein biology. The work of his team has illustrated the incredible extent and complexity of the biology of these proteins in different tissues (liver, red blood cells, bone, cartilage and now vessels, adipose tissue and brain).
Sarah BECK-CORMIER (CRCN CNRS) has a strong expertise, acquired at Pasteur Institute and RMeS laboratory, in the phenotypical analysis of genetically modified mice, particularly in the skeletal, vascular and intestinal tissues. She is now an internationally recognized expert in the biology of bone and mineralized tissue.
Marie GUICHETEAU (PhD student, year 2) has spent her M2 year (undergraduate) with us and was successful to get the competitive PhD fellowship from the Biology & Health Doctoral School. She is now in her second year PhD with us on a very ambitious and exciting program dealing with the role of PiT2 in lipids metabolism.
Nathan CHATÉ (PhD student, year 1) has joined us recently to work on the ANR PARKA project, aiming to decipher the mechanism of action of phosphate in the development of vascular calcifications in the context of chronic kidney disease, and to identify putative therapeutic targets able to counteract its deleterious effects.

Former members

  • Greig COUASNAY (2011-2015) was our first PhD student when we arrived in Nantes. He identified and characterized the role of PiT1 in the ER stress and chondrocyte survival
  • Laure MERAMETDJIAN (2012-2016) came as a Dentist to perform a PhD to study the role of the phosphate transporters, and especially PiT2, in tooth mineralization
  • Nina BON (2013-2017) identified the heterodimer PiT1-PiT2 and characterized PiT2 as a phosphate sensor in vitro and in vivo during her PhD
  • Elodie LE TILLY (2014-2017) was a Pharmacist that did a PhD with us on studying the role of Klotho in the articular cartilage
  • Giulia FRANGI (2017-2020) focused her PhD work on the role of PiT2 in the communication of the bone with adipose tissues
  • Pierre GUIHARD (2018-2020) was a post-doc in our group and was interested in the role of Gla-independent roles of Matrix Gla Protein in bone mineralization during bone regeneration
  • Lucile FIGUERES (2019-2020) was a Medical Doctor (nephrologist) that worked with us for a couple of year as a junior researcher on the role of PiT2 as a phosphate sensor in the kidney

Our Lab

are part of the Research Unit of l’institut du thorax Inserm UMR1087 / CNRS UMR6291 located in the IRS-UN building of Nantes Université. We are part of the ITX-Lab, which is the research unit of l’institut du thorax (ITX), a 20-year-old structure dedicated to translational research against cardiovascular, metabolic and respiratory diseases, which involves 800 collaborators from six clinical units, one national reference centre on inherited cardiac arrhythmias, one centre for clinical investigations (the CIC-Thorax) and one research unit (the ITX-lab).

Our close environment

Our lab is part of the Structure Fédérative de Recherche Bonamy, which federates the 13 biomedicine research laboratories in Nantes and coordinates a network of 18 core facilities. This site coordination allows all researchers to have access to a variety of cutting-edge technologies and promotes interactions and collaborations on the Nantes site. Laurent is the director of this structure since January 2022.

Our collaborators

As someone said once, « Art is ‘I’, science is ‘we‘ ». Our group strongly interacts with many other scientists in Nantes, in France, and abroad, for all its past and current projects. Networking is essential to our work.

Phosphate sensing

Bone mineralization and quality

Tooth mineralization

Bone marrow adiposity & Lipid metabolism

  • Greet Kerckhofs (Biomechanics Lab – Institute of Mechanics, Materials, and Civil Engineering, UCLouvain, Leuven, Belgium)
  • Xavier Prieur (ITX-Lab Inserm 1087/ CNRS 6291, Nantes Université, Nantes, France)
  • Christophe Chauveau (MABLab, University of Lille and University du Littoral Côte d’Opale, Boulogne-sur-mer, France)

Growth plate cartilage

Vessels, vascular calcification

  • Thibaut Quillard (ITX-Lab, Inserm 1087/ CNRS 6291, Nantes Université, Nantes, France)
  • David Magne (ICBMS CNRS 5246, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France)
  • Denis Fouque (CARMEN Lab Inserm 1060, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France)
  • Christophe Soulage (CARMEN Lab Inserm 1060, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France)
  • Marie-Hélène Lafage-Proust & Luc Malaval (SAINBIOSE Lab Inserm 1059, Université Jean Monnet, St Etienne, France)
  • Jean-Luc Battini (IRIM, Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier, Montpellier, France)
  • Gael Nicolas (Genomic and Personalized Medicine in Cancer and Neurological Disorders Inserm U1245, Normandy University, Rouen, France)