Biosketch

Philippos Mourikis is a Research Director (DR1) at CNRS. He was recruited at INEM in January 2025.

With a long-standing interest in Notch signalling and the regulation of stem cell quiescence, Dr Mourikis uses mouse skeletal muscle as a model system. He never left the Notch field, which has been the connective thread of his research throughout his career. His research often challenged established paradigms in the field by showing that:

• Notch is a quiescence factor and not a driver of proliferation, as previously thought.
• Binding of the Notch transcriptional complex to DNA is not static, but instead it is dynamically responding to the activity of the N pathway.
• Standard cell isolation protocols induce drastic transcriptional and epigenetic changes, thus redefining the molecular profile of quiescent cells.

Dr Mourikis earned his PhD at Harvard Medical School (2000–2005) under the mentorship of Prof. Artavanis-Tsakonas, who famously cloned the Notch locus. During his doctoral studies, he explored ageing and Notch signalling in D. melanogaster. His introduction into mouse genetics and muscle research began during his postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Prof. Tajbakhsh at the Pasteur Institute, Paris (2006-2012). This was followed by a second postdoctoral position in Prof. Relaix's team at the Institute of Myology, also in Paris, where Dr Mourikis secured a CR1 CNRS position in 2014. The same year he moved at the Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale, Créteil, and a Strategic Pole of AFM-Téléthon. In 2019 was DR2 and headed his group in the team of Prof Relaix.