About
Alexandre Benmerah has a Cell Biology background with previous works focused on endocytosis and on the role of vesicular trafficking in the biogenesis of the primary cilium. After having headed a team at Cochin Institute for 12 years, he joined Sophie Saunier's group in 2013 to develop projects aiming to better understand the function of newly identified genes in nephronophthisis (NPHP), a renal ciliopathy. Alexandre Benmerah contributed to the foundation of the french network on cilia and ciliopathies (Club CFC) and is regularly involved in the organization of French and European cilia meetings. He is also involved in teaching at the Paris Cité University where he is heading the Master 2 "Developmental and Cell Biology" and member of the board of the MECA department of the BioSPC PhD program.
Scientific project
After having worked on the characterization of ciliary functions of new NPHP genes, Alexandre Benmerah joined the efforts of the team to develop therapeutic approaches for NPH and participated in the characterization of the effects of prostaglandin receptor agonists on ciliogenesis at the cellular level. His ongoing projects are pursuing these approaches aiming to identify and characterize new therapeutic compounds for NPHP using cellular and zebrafish embryo models.
2023Journal (source)Front Mol Biosci