Pierre Morsomme
libst | Louvain-la-Neuve
Postal address
LIBST, Croix du Sud 4-5
Bte L7.07.14
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
E-mail: Pierre Morsomme
Phone: +32 10 47 26 23
Secretary: +32 10 47 36 15
Location:
LIBST
Carnoy building, office B312
Louvain-la-Neuve campus
Narrative summary
Pierre Morsomme is a cell biologist and biochemist investigating how membrane transporters and membrane trafficking pathways control the ionic and protein composition of cellular compartments, and how their dysfunction affects cell physiology and human disease. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying Golgi ion homeostasis, protein glycosylation and the regulation of plasma membrane proteins. It combines yeast genetics and biochemistry, quantitative proteomics and mammalian cell biology.
A major focus of his research is understanding the function of a newly identified family of cation transporters linked to Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG). His group has studied TMEM165 and its yeast ortholog Gdt1, a family highly conserved from bacteria to all eukaryotes. His work showed that TMEM165 transports calcium and manganese, linking Golgi cation homeostasis to glycosylation and to the pathophysiology of CDG. This work currently extends to the biogenesis and topology of TMEM165, its role in protein glycosylation and its impact on cancer cell physiology. In parallel, his group studies membrane trafficking, including the regulation of endocytosis of plasma membrane proteins in yeast and in mammalian cells.
Pierre Morsomme is Full Professor at UCLouvain, where he was appointed professor in 2011, after being appointed FNRS Research Associate in 2003 and founding the membrane trafficking research team at the Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology (LIBST). He trained with André Goffeau and Marc Boutry at UCLouvain (PhD, 1999) and with Howard Riezman at the Biozentrum in Basel, as an HFSP and EMBO fellow. Having previously served as vice-director of the LIBST, president of the Master in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and head of the UCLouvain mass spectrometry facility, he is now president of the LIBST. He has supervised more than 20 PhD theses and serves on the editorial boards of Advances in Biology, Microbial Cell and Yeast.