Le lundi 22 juin 2026, Madame Lobna OUESLATI titulaire d'un Diplôme National d'ingénieur en sciences appliquées et technologie (Université de Carthage - Tunisie) et d'un Certificat de formation à la recherche en sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques, présentera l'examen en vue de l'obtention du grade de Doctorat en sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques, sous la direction de Monsieur Pierre CLOSE et de Monsieur Christophe DESMET.

Cette épreuve consistera en la défense publique d'une thèse intitulée : "Wobble tRNA modification shapes tumor associated neutrophils in metastatic breast cancer". 

Le jury sera composé de :

Thomas MARICHAL (Président), Francesca RAPINO (Secrétaire), Pierre CLOSE, Christophe DESMET, Michel GEORGES, Gwendal LAZENNEC (Sys2Diag), Sofie STRUYF (KUL).

Résumé de la thèse

Tumor Associated  Neutrophils (TANs) play a pro-tumoral role in Breast cancer development promoting its growth through the release of growth factors and angiogenic factors and at advanced stages TANs interfere to create a premetastatic niche in the Lung and thus promote metastasis. U34 enzymes play crucial roles in translation efficiency, stability and pace however Their involvement has been described in multiple neurological diseases and in wnt driven cancer development. The implication of the U34 enzymes in immunology is an emerging field, and it has been demonstrated by our institute that they play a role in macrophage M2 polarization in cancer and the loss of Elp3 (U34 enzyme) can impair T cells functioning. The analysis of public transcriptomic data of TANs showed the up regulation of the U34 enzymes and more precisely.

To explore the importance of Elp3 in breast cancer associated TANs, we developed a spontaneous luminal B subtype model presenting the knockout of Elp3 in neutrophils, we have seen a delay of tumor growth and absence of lung metastasis in late stages. This project aims to investigate the effect of the loss of Elp3 in the functioning of TANs and their effect on the tumor microenvironment.