Role of Vps34, presentation at the 2nd Young Scientist Cancer Congress 

The 2nd Young Scientist Cancer Congress took place on 10-11th October in Montpellier, as an initiative to promote the careers of young scientists and clinicians. Hala Shalhoub, post-doc in the Guillermet Lab/SigDYN presented a great talk on « The role of Vps34 in the initiation of pancreatic cancer ».

PI3K/Akt/mTORC1 pathway is among the major oncogenic signaling pathways that are activated in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma PDAC. Whether class III PI3K also tightly control mTORC1 activity in physiological settings remains controversial; besides, the role of class III PI3-kinase remained underexplored both in PDAC and in pancreatitis, a potential risk factor for PDAC development. Class III PI3K comprises only one isoform named Vps34. Through its kinase activity, Vps34 plays a role in regulating autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved process, which plays an important function in both pancreatic physiology and pathophysiology. My results obtained in SigDyn’s team show that Vps34 full inactivation may protect from initiation of precancer lesions in the context of inflammation by bypassing epithelial plasticity. These finding may be a key to understand pancreatic cancer initiation.

Contacts : Hala Shalhoub et Benoît Thibault, SigDYN team