First person – Charlotte Canet-Jourdan

Charlotte Canet-Jourdan

How would you explain the main findings of your paper in lay terms?

In this paper, we studied the phenotype of tumor spheres known to be responsible for metastases in some colorectal cancer patients. We could demonstrate that, depending on how they can interact with their surrounding environment, those spheres display two distinct topologies: one that recapitulates the classical architecture found in normal tissues, and one that is completely upside-down. Moreover, we found that the upside-down spheres correlated with a bad prognosis, linked to an increased resistance to conventional anti-cancer drugs.

Were there any specific challenges associated with this project? If so, how did you overcome them?

I think that the main challenge was to completely rely on patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. This means that I had to wait for the tumor to grow, which took ∼2 months, and then the experiments lasted at least a couple weeks. The fact that I wasn't able, at the time, to culture the spheres like classical organoids prevented me from going deeper into the mechanistic aspects. I could overcome this technical challenge by trying to anticipate every outcome for each experiment in order to get the most benefit out of each tumor. This required a lot of organization and planning skills to think ahead.

When doing the research, did you have a particular result or ‘eureka’ moment that has stuck with you?

I remember the first time I tried to combine the TGFβ stimulation with the β1-integrin inhibition, being at the microscope where I did all my quantifications and seeing that it actually worked. It was a moment of joy and relief because I spent some months struggling before this result.

Why did you choose Journal of Cell Science for your paper?

I chose Journal of Cell Science for my paper because I always enjoyed reading papers from it. They are straightforward, well demonstrated and of interest for a broad audience. This was the type of paper that I wanted to publish for my PhD.

What motivated you to pursue a career in science, and what have been the most interesting moments on the path that led you to where you are now?

I've always been really into science and laboratory research since I was a teenager. I started at the bench when I was 15. Later on, some of my professors in college were also doing research and got me interested into going forward in that direction. I felt like I always wanted to learn more, which led to me to do a PhD and now a first postdoc.

What's next for you?

I'm hoping to get the best of my postdoc in order to obtain a permanent position. Then we'll see if I want to create my own team.

Tell us something interesting about yourself that wouldn't be on your CV

I'm also really passionate about cooking and trying to start a degree next year in parallel to my work.