Alice Cezanne

Current understanding suggests that eukaryotes arose from a symbiotic relationship between an archaeal host and a bacterial symbiont. Interestingly, the resulting eukaryotic lineage preserves many protein machineries of the archaeal host, but the lipid membrane architecture is of bacterial origin. Archaeal lipids are structurally distinct and arrange themselves into very different membrane structures, such as mixtures of monolayer and bilayer membrane.
 
I am a biochemist with an interest in protein-lipid interactions and how membrane properties shape and regulate cellular processes. My work is primarily focussed on studying membrane dynamics and remodelling during cell division in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, a member of the TACK archaeal superphylum. Cell division in S. acidocaldarius is driven by homologues of the ESCRTIII complex which drives abscission in eukaryotes. By investigating how this conserved protein machinery can act on two very different lipid architectures we hope to gain an understanding of fundamental principles of cell division, as well as shed some light on the evolution of the comparatively more complex membrane landscape in eukaryotes.