Emmanuel Dupont

Biography

Emmanuel Dupont has a long interest in gap junctions, the structures that allow cell to cell communication and therefore, are responsible for the propagation of the action potential between heart cells. This has led him to acquire a very strong background in cell biology in the various internationally renowned laboratories where he has worked in the past. For his PhD with Professor D. Gros to characterise gap junction protein in the heart using newly developed antibodies (University of Aix-Marseille II); with Professor J. Trosko, on the involvement of intercellular communication in cancer progression and in cell growth control (Michigan State University) and with Professor P.Meda, on the relation between intercellular communication and insulin secretion of pancreatic B-cells (Geneva Medical School). He joined Professor Nick Severs' group at the NHLI in 1995 to work on gap junction remodeling in heart failure. After a few years as a Senior Lecturer at University of Surrey, Dr Dupont has re-joined the NHLI in the team of Prof Nick Peters on a more research based position. His main interest is now relating the co-expression of junctional proteins (or connexins) to electrical conduction in living, two dimensional cell systems that can be extrapolated to three dimensional structures. New biological tools devised by Dr Dupont are opening new research directions and collaborations. The sub-cloning of the myocitic HL-1 cell lines permit the study of both action potential generation and propagation

Research Interest

arrhythmia, cancer, Electrophysiology