He then defended his PhD thesis in 1972 in genetic regulation of E. coli in the lab of François Stoeber, (student of Jacques Monod) at INSA Lyon.
This team contributed to the fields of glycoproteins and cell adhesion,[8][9][10] metabolism,[11][12] intracellular pH regulation and molecular identification of the human Na+/H+ exchanger.
Interest in this process led the team to study the mechanisms of HIF-proline hydroxylase signalling, HIF1 stabilization under hypoxia, angiogenesis, autophagy,[19][20][21] nutritional stress and aberrant tumor metabolism.
[22] The team is pursuing, at a fundamental, translational and pre-clinical level, the physiological role of key targets induced by nutritional stress and tumor hypoxia.
[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] These targets, often strongly expressed in aggressive cancers, contribute to "Darwinian" selection within the hypoxic, acidic, denutrient tumor microenvironment leading to metastatic spread.