Biosketch

Etienne Morel is an INSERM research director and group leader in the cell biology department of INEM. He earned his PhD in Physiology and Cell Biology from Pierre et Marie Curie (Sorbonne) University in 2004. During his doctoral studies under the guidance of Jean Chambaz and Monique Rousset, he worked on lipoproteins assembly and prion infection and trafficking in epithelial cells. Subsequently, Dr. Morel developed an expertise in cellular biology, focusing on endosomal membrane dynamics during his first postdoctoral tenure at the University of Geneva's Department of Biochemistry (2004-2009) in the lab of Jean Gruenberg. He furthered his exploration of cellular intricacies during his second postdoctoral appointment (2009-2010) in the Cell Biology & Pathology Department at Columbia University, working with Gilbert di Paolo and Scott Small to unravel the biology of endosomal phosphoinositides in the context of Alzheimer's disease.
Upon securing a permanent position at INSERM, Etienne Morel returned to France in 2010, conducting research at the Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers in Paris, where he investigated the role of autophagosomes in the behavior of neutral lipids in enterocytes until 2013. In 2014, he joined the research group of Patrice Codogno at the Cell Biology Department of Institut Necker Enfants Malades in Paris. He has been the Group Leader of the "Membranes Dynamics in Stress Response" lab since 2019.
Etienne Morel's research endeavors focus on deciphering how various intracellular organelles and components collaborate with the autophagic machinery to respond to stress stimuli. His recent work has identified several signaling platforms and organelles as pivotal regulators of stress sensing and autophagic processes, including the primary cilium, mitochondria, the endosomal network, and membrane contact sites.