CONTACT

Dr. Alicia Mayeuf-Louchart, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator
Group Leader

PhD, HDR, INSERM Researcher

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Career

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) and skeletal muscle are peripheral organs that communicate with the brain through hormones and metabolites. Both tissues are derived from the same embryonic progenitors during embryonic development. Our team aims to better understand the communication between the brain and peripheral organs in physio-pathology. We have strong expertise in embryonic development, stem cells, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, metabolism and circadian rhythms. We study how BAT and skeletal muscle develop during the perinatal period and into adulthood, and how circadian rhythms and metabolism control stem cell differentiation and regeneration. Our research focuses on fundamental biology and clinical application in various diseases such as myopathies and metabolic disorders, identifying new pathological mechanisms and developing cell therapy approaches.

Recent major achievements

MUSCLEJ/J2: We have developed a bioinformatics tool named MuscleJ (Mayeuf-Louchart et al., 2018), which has recently evolved into MuscleJ2 (Danckaert et al., 2023), enabling automated quantification of the main parameters that can be analyzed on a muscle biopsy. MuscleJ2 is now a reference tool for the histological characterisation of skeletal muscle, used by over 100 laboratories worldwide. The implementation of results cartography makes it possible to quickly visualise the quantitative data on a muscle biopsy in parallel with obtaining a wide range of numerical results. This tool has been made available free to academic research laboratories and can be downloaded from the following link: https://github.com/ADanckaert/MuscleJ2/tree/Plugin

Glycogen metabolism in BAT: We have shown that glycogen synthesis and degradation by glycophagy are essential for brown adipocytes during development (Mayeuf-Louchart, 2021; Mayeuf-Louchart et al., 2019). In the absence of glycogen, lipid droplets fail to form during the adipocyte differentiation program. A transient accumulation of glycogen is also detected in adipocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (Bouchekioua et al., 2024; Rao et al., 2023). Our team aims to gain a better understanding of the importance of glycogen metabolism in BAT during the perinatal period, as well as in adults.

Discover Publications

Alicia Mayeuf-Louchart’s career in science began with a deep curiosity about the complex processes that govern life. Her studies and professional achievements bear witness to an unwavering dedication to unlocking the secrets of developmental biology and metabolic diseases. Alicia’s academic career began at the Université Paris Diderot, where she obtained her Master’s degree in Reproduction and Development in 2009.

This basic training awakened her passion for understanding the complexities of biological development. She went on to complete a PhD in developmental biology at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris, under the supervision of Professor Margaret Buckingham at the Institut Pasteur. Her doctoral research focused on the molecular genetics of development, laying the foundations for her future contributions in this field.

During her thesis, she studied the molecular mechanisms that lead to the cell fate choice of Pax3-positive progenitors in the embryo. After obtaining her PhD in 2013, Alicia carried out a postdoctoral research placement at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Lille, under the supervision of Professor Bart Staels and Dr Hélène Duez. She studied nuclear receptors and circadian rhythms and their role in metabolic diseases. In particular, she focused on two peripheral organs: skeletal muscle and brown adipose tissue. Her work during this period led to a better understanding of glycogen metabolism in the brown adipocyte.

In 2020, Alicia’s contributions were rewarded when she became a full researcher at INSERM. Her role was further expanded in 2024 when she was appointed group leader of the ‘Lille-Neuroendocrinology’ team at INSERM’s Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Unit 1172, in the laboratory headed by Vincent Prévot. In this position of principal investigator, Alicia continues to lead innovative research projects, focusing on the study of metabolism and biological rhythms in the context of stem cells and embryonic development.

ORCID 0000-0002-3787-7450
https://fr.linkedin.com/in/alicia-mayeuf-louchart-52439b54
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In Vitro Differentiation of Beige/Brown Adipocytes for the Treatment of Metabolic Diseases, in: Adipose Tissue - Development, Homeostasis, and Remodelling. IntechOpen, edited by Dr. Féaron C. Cassidy. (2024)
Bouchekioua, A., Pourquié, O., Mayeuf-Louchart, A.* . (* Corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002886
MuscleJ2: a rebuilding of MuscleJ with new features for high-content analysis of skeletal muscle immunofluorescence slides. Skeletal Muscle 13, 14. (2023)
Danckaert A.*, Trignol A., Le Loher G., Loubens S., Staels B., Duez H., Shorte, S.L., Mayeuf-Louchart A.*
Reconstructing human Brown Fat developmental trajectory in vitro. Dev Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2023.08.001 (2023)
Rao J., Chal J., Marchianò F., Wang C.-H., Al Tanoury Z., Gapon S., Djeffal Y., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Glass I., Sefton E.M., Habermann B., Kardon G., Tseng Y-H and Pourquié O.
Nr1d1 controls skeletal muscle calcium homeostasis through myoregulin repression. JCI Insight. e153584. (2022)
Boulinguiez A.*, Duhem C.*, Mayeuf-Louchart A., Pourcet B., Sebti Y., Delhaye S., Couvelaere M., Ayari A., Rosa-Calatrava M., Zecchin M., Thorel Q., Ferri L., Beauchamp J., Pietri-Rouxel F., Staels B., Duez H. & Lancel S. (
Uncovering the Role of Glycogen in Brown Adipose Tissue. Pharmaceutical Research. 38(1):9-14. (2021)
Mayeuf-Louchart, A.*
Influenza infection rewires energy metabolism and induces browning features in adipose cells and tissues. Communications Biology. 3(1):237. (2020)
Ayari A., Rosa-Calatrava M., Lancel S., Julien T., Baron M., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Deruyter L., Soulard D., Faveeuw C., Sedano L., Le Goffic R., Trottein F. and Wolowczuk I.
Glycogen dynamics drives lipid droplet biogenesis during brown adipocyte differentiation. Cell Reports. 29, 1410–1418.e6. (2019)
Mayeuf-Louchart A.*, Lancel S., Sebti Y., Pourcet B., Loyens A., Delhaye S., Duhem C., Beauchamp J., Ferri L., Thorel Q., Boulinguiez A., Zecchin M., Dubois-Chevalier J., Eeckhoute J., Vaughn J.T., Roach P.J., Dani C., Pederson B.A, Vincent S.D., Staels B. and Duez H. (*corresponding author)
Muscle-J: A high content analysis method to study skeletal muscle with a new Fiji tool. Skeletal Muscle Aug 6;8(1):25. (2018)
Mayeuf-Louchart, A.*, Hardy, D., Roux, P., Thorel, Q., Mazeraud, A., Gueniot, L., Briand, D., Bouglé, A., Shorte, S.L., Staels, B., Chrétien, F., Duez, H. and Danckaert, A*. (* Co-corresponding authors)
Nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group D member 1 regulates circadian activity of NLRP3 inflammasome to reduce the severity of fulminant hepatitis in mice. Gastroenterology (17)36725-2. (2017)
Pourcet B., Zecchin M., Ferri L., Beauchamp J., Sitaula S., Billon C., Delhaye S., Vanhoutte J., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Thorel Q., Haas J., Eeckhoute J., Dombrowicz D., Duhem C., Boulinguiez A., Lancel S., Sebti Y., Burris T., Staels B. & Duez H.
Rev-erb-α regulates atrophy-related genes to control skeletal muscle mass. Scientific Reports 7, 14383. (2017)
Mayeuf-Louchart A*., Thorel Q*., Delhaye S., Beauchamp J., Duhem C., Danckaert A., Lancel S., Pourcet B., Woldt E., Boulinguiez A., Ferri L., Zecchin M., Staels B., Sebti Y., Duez H. (*Co- authors.)

Project funding:
• Foundation for Prader-Willi Reasearch (FPWR) (2024/2026)
• French National Research Agency (ANR), France (2024/2027)
• French Society for Myology (SFM) (2024/2026)
• French Association for Myopathies (AFM-Téléthon) (2021/2023)
• European Genomic Institute for Diabetes (EGID) (2022)
• CPER- Région Hauts de France (2019/2021)
• French Association for Myopathies (AFM-Téléthon) (2019/2020)
• French Society for Myology (SFM) (2009/2011).

Salary funding:
• Postdoctoral fellow (AFM-Téléthon- 2014/2016)
• Mission engineer (BiLille, 3months 2018)
• 4th year of PhD (AFM-Téléthon- 2012/2013)
• PhD (French Ministry for Higher Education and Research – 2009/2012)

Travel funding:
• International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) (2019)
• French Society for Developmental Biology (SFBD) (2013)

PRIZES
• Award for investment in bringing science to the general public, AFM-Téléthon (French Association for Myopathies), 2022
• Early Career Impulsion Prize, SFM (French Society for Myology), 2019

Selected publications

In Vitro Differentiation of Beige/Brown Adipocytes for the Treatment of Metabolic Diseases, in: Adipose Tissue - Development, Homeostasis, and Remodelling. IntechOpen, edited by Dr. Féaron C. Cassidy. (2024)
Bouchekioua, A., Pourquié, O., Mayeuf-Louchart, A.* . (* Corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1002886
MuscleJ2: a rebuilding of MuscleJ with new features for high-content analysis of skeletal muscle immunofluorescence slides. Skeletal Muscle 13, 14. (2023)
Danckaert A.*, Trignol A., Le Loher G., Loubens S., Staels B., Duez H., Shorte, S.L., Mayeuf-Louchart A.*
Reconstructing human Brown Fat developmental trajectory in vitro. Dev Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2023.08.001 (2023)
Rao J., Chal J., Marchianò F., Wang C.-H., Al Tanoury Z., Gapon S., Djeffal Y., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Glass I., Sefton E.M., Habermann B., Kardon G., Tseng Y-H and Pourquié O.
Nr1d1 controls skeletal muscle calcium homeostasis through myoregulin repression. JCI Insight. e153584. (2022)
Boulinguiez A.*, Duhem C.*, Mayeuf-Louchart A., Pourcet B., Sebti Y., Delhaye S., Couvelaere M., Ayari A., Rosa-Calatrava M., Zecchin M., Thorel Q., Ferri L., Beauchamp J., Pietri-Rouxel F., Staels B., Duez H. & Lancel S. (
Uncovering the Role of Glycogen in Brown Adipose Tissue. Pharmaceutical Research. 38(1):9-14. (2021)
Mayeuf-Louchart, A.*
Influenza infection rewires energy metabolism and induces browning features in adipose cells and tissues. Communications Biology. 3(1):237. (2020)
Ayari A., Rosa-Calatrava M., Lancel S., Julien T., Baron M., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Deruyter L., Soulard D., Faveeuw C., Sedano L., Le Goffic R., Trottein F. and Wolowczuk I.
Glycogen dynamics drives lipid droplet biogenesis during brown adipocyte differentiation. Cell Reports. 29, 1410–1418.e6. (2019)
Mayeuf-Louchart A.*, Lancel S., Sebti Y., Pourcet B., Loyens A., Delhaye S., Duhem C., Beauchamp J., Ferri L., Thorel Q., Boulinguiez A., Zecchin M., Dubois-Chevalier J., Eeckhoute J., Vaughn J.T., Roach P.J., Dani C., Pederson B.A, Vincent S.D., Staels B. and Duez H. (*corresponding author)
Muscle-J: A high content analysis method to study skeletal muscle with a new Fiji tool. Skeletal Muscle Aug 6;8(1):25. (2018)
Mayeuf-Louchart, A.*, Hardy, D., Roux, P., Thorel, Q., Mazeraud, A., Gueniot, L., Briand, D., Bouglé, A., Shorte, S.L., Staels, B., Chrétien, F., Duez, H. and Danckaert, A*. (* Co-corresponding authors)
Nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group D member 1 regulates circadian activity of NLRP3 inflammasome to reduce the severity of fulminant hepatitis in mice. Gastroenterology (17)36725-2. (2017)
Pourcet B., Zecchin M., Ferri L., Beauchamp J., Sitaula S., Billon C., Delhaye S., Vanhoutte J., Mayeuf-Louchart A., Thorel Q., Haas J., Eeckhoute J., Dombrowicz D., Duhem C., Boulinguiez A., Lancel S., Sebti Y., Burris T., Staels B. & Duez H.
Rev-erb-α regulates atrophy-related genes to control skeletal muscle mass. Scientific Reports 7, 14383. (2017)
Mayeuf-Louchart A*., Thorel Q*., Delhaye S., Beauchamp J., Duhem C., Danckaert A., Lancel S., Pourcet B., Woldt E., Boulinguiez A., Ferri L., Zecchin M., Staels B., Sebti Y., Duez H. (*Co- authors.)

Team members

Mouna Amaouche
PhD student
Amine Bouchekioua
PhD student
co-direction Olivier Pourquié, Harvard University, US
Rémi Kurdian
PhD student
co-direction Colin Crist, Montreal University, Canada
Martina Canatelli- Mallat
PhD, Researcher
Sébastien Loubens
Clinician
Victorea Banza
Master student
Lorenzo Argento
Master student