Mathias Francois 2018 Hunter Cell Biology Meeting

Mathias Francois

I was rewarded with a PhD in Molecular Pathophysiology (Paris VI) in June 2004. In 2005, under a NHMRC & INSERM Fellowship, I moved to the Koopman Laboratory (The University of Queensland, IMB) to study the role of SOX transcription factors in lymphatic vessel development in mammals. The major discovery of my post-doctoral work is how SOX18 protein instructs the embryonic origin of lymphatic vessels. The Francois lab was set up at IMB in 2012 and my strategic approach to research is based on a highly multi-disciplinary approach that encompasses developmental biology, pathophysiological model systems complemented by biophysics and genomics approaches. My research program is designed at identifying novel therapeutic strategies to target the pathological vasculature via the manipulation of transcription factor activity. We have now established the proof of principle that transcription factors are viable molecular target using small molecule inhibitors in the context of solid cancer metastasis.