Elodie Modave

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Translational Research in GastroIntestinal Disorders

Correct development and maturation of the enteric nervous system (ENS) is critical for survival¹. At birth, the ENS is immature and requires considerable refinement to exert its functions in adulthood². Here we demonstrate that resident macrophages of the muscularis externa (MMϕ) refine the ENS early in life by pruning synapses and phagocytosing en...

T cells dynamically rewire their metabolism during an immune response. We applied single-cell RNA sequencing to CD8+ T cells activated and differentiated in vitro in physiological medium to resolve these metabolic dynamics. We identify a differential time-dependent reliance of activating T cells on the synthesis versus uptake of various non-essenti...

Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a rare subtype of soft tissue sarcoma characterized by an unbalanced translocation, resulting in ASPSCR1-TFE3 fusion that transcriptionally upregulates MET expression. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 90101 “CREATE” phase II trial evaluated the MET inhibitor crizotinib in AS...

Clear cell sarcoma (CCSA) is characterized by a chromosomal translocation leading to EWSR1 rearrangement, resulting in aberrant transcription of multiple genes, including MET. The EORTC 90101 phase II trial evaluated the MET inhibitor crizotinib in CCSA but resulted in only sporadic responses. We performed an in-depth histopathological and molecula...

Background Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) is difficult to treat with 5-year survival rate of 10% in metastatic patients. Main reasons of therapy failure are lack of validated biomarkers and scarce knowledge of the biological processes occurring during RCC progression. Thus, the investigation of mechanisms regulating RCC progression is fundamental to im...

Purpose: The clinical phase II trial EORTC 90101 "CREATE" showed high anti-tumor activity of crizotinib, an inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)/ROS1, in patients with advanced inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMFT). However, recent findings suggested that other molecular targets in addition to ALK/ROS1 might also contribute to the sen...

Purpose: Regorafenib (REG) is approved for the treatment of mCRC, but has modest survival benefit and associated toxicities. Robust predictive/early response biomarkers to aid patient stratification are outstanding. We have exploited biological pathway analyses in a patient derived xenograft (PDX) trial to study REG response mechanisms and elucida...

Cytotoxic T cells dynamically rewire their metabolism during the course of an immune response. While T cell metabolism has been extensively studied at phenotypic endpoints of activation and differentiation, the underlying dynamics remain largely elusive. Here, we leverage on single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) measurements of in vitro activated...

Significance The pituitary is our master endocrine gland. Local damage and aging present important threats. We started to decrypt the ill-defined regulation of the gland’s stem cells, typically dormant but acutely activated upon damage. Single-cell transcriptomics uncovered interleukin-6 as a pituitary stem cell activator upon local damage, corrobo...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00811-4.

Purpose: A randomized phase III study evaluated the efficacy of eribulin versus dacarbazine in patients with advanced liposarcoma and leiomyosarcoma. Improved overall survival (OS) led to approval of eribulin for liposarcoma, but not for leiomyosarcoma. Experimental design: We explored the molecular profile of 77 archival leiomyosarcoma samples...

Patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) are resected human tumors engrafted into mice for preclinical studies and therapeutic testing. It has been proposed that the mouse host affects tumor evolution during PDX engraftment and propagation, affecting the accuracy of PDX modeling of human cancer. Here, we exhaustively analyze copy number alterations (CNAs)...

Aims/hypothesisDiabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness. Despite recent advances, our understanding of its pathophysiology remains incomplete. The aim of this study was to provide deeper insight into the complex network of molecular and cellular changes that underlie diabetic r...

Patient-Derived Xenografts (PDXs) are preclinical models largely used to study tumor biology and drug response. Recent literature highlighted the possibility that growth of human tumors in a mouse microenvironment imposes a selection driving mouse-specific genetic evolution of PDXs, which may compromise their reliability as human cancer models. Con...

About 50% of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMFTs) harbor rearrangements of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (), the most common driver in this rare tumor. EORTC 90101 “CREATE” is so far the only prospective, disease-specific phase II clinical trial performed in IMFT. It showed high antitumor activity of crizotinib, an /ROS1/MET-inhibitor. This act...

Background. The recent randomized phase 3 trial Eisai Study 309 evaluated efficacy of eribulin (ERI) compared to dacarbazine (DTIC) in advanced liposarcoma (LPS) and leiomyosarcoma (LMS). Improved overall survival (OS) in ERI-treated patients led to US and EU regulatory approval of ERI for LPS, but not in LMS where DTIC has clinically relevant acti...

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) still lacks prognostic and predictive biomarkers to monitor the disease and the response to therapy. The usual strategy in translational research is to start from human samples, to identify molecular markers and gene networks and then to functionally validate them in vitro and in animal models. We devised herein a complet...

Patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) are resected human tumors engrafted into mice for preclinical studies and therapeutic testing. It has been proposed that the mouse host affects tumor evolution during PDX engraftment and propagation, impacting the accuracy of PDX modeling of human cancer. Here we exhaustively analyze copy number alterations (CNAs)...

The ability to detect the incursion of an invasive species or destroy the last individuals during an eradication program are some of the most difficult aspects of invasive species management. The presence of foxes in Tasmania is a contentious issue with recent structured monitoring efforts, involving collection of carnivore scats and testing for fo...

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Supplementary information for Ramsey et al (2017) Ecology and Evolution 2017:1-12. Detecting rare carnivores using scats: Implications for monitoring a fox incursion into Tasmania

Background: Identification of species from trace samples is now possible through the comparison of diagnostic DNA fragments against reference DNA sequence databases. DNA detection of animals from non-invasive samples, such as predator faeces (scats) that contain traces of DNA from their species of origin, has proved to be a valuable tool for manage...

Reviewer 2 report on revisions for Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Supplementary information for Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Original submitted version of Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Reviewer 1 report for Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Reviewer 2 report for Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Revision file 1 for Modave et al (2017) GigaScience 6(8):gix052. A single mini-barcode test to screen for Australian mammalian predators from environmental samples

Tasmania supports a number of native Australian mammals whose mainland counterparts have severely declined or disappeared since European settlement. This provides a unique opportunity to study ecosystem changes occurring through the ongoing collapse of the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population along with the recent introduction of the f...

Understanding how mammal populations interact with each other and their immediate environment is of critical importance to predicting responses to environmental change while knowledge on diet and distribution of emerging invasive species is vital to management efforts. However, estimating species distributions, let alone interactions among them, ha...