Jean-François Paré, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral research fellow

Education
Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, 2002

Lab
James Sherley

Research Interests
I completed my graduate studies in Luc Bélanger’s laboratory at the Laval University Cancer Research Center in Quebec City. During that time, I cloned and characterized the regulatory elements of the mouse FTF (Fetoprotein Transcription Factor, also named Nr5a2 in the unified nomenclature system for the nuclear receptors) gene, and performed its knockout. I later moved to James L. Sherley’s laboratory for my postdoctoral studies to develop a transgenic mouse model for the expansion of adult stem cells. This model takes advantage of a non-mammalian gene that can convert purines exogenously provided into intracellular guanine ribonucleotides, which led to an increase in symmetric division of the adult stem cells and, consequently, their expansion. Pancreatic stem cell strains have been derived from these mice and I am currently determining their molecular and engraftment properties. I have also derived a pancreatic cell line that homes to the pancreas and forms pancreatic tumors after intraperitoneal injection. This could provide new insights on the origin and progression of some forms of pancreatic neoplasias. My principal areas of interest are tissue regeneration, developmental biology, cancer biology, and the development of animal models.

Recent Publications:
Labelle-Dumais C, Paré JF, Bélanger L, Farookhi R, Dufort D. Impaired progesterone production in Nr5a2+/- mice leads to a reduction in female
reproductive function. Biol Reprod. 2007; 77(2):217-25.

Paré JF, Sherley JL. Biological principles for ex vivo adult stem cell expansion. Curr Top Dev Biol. 2006; 73:141-71.

Labelle-Dumais C, Jacob-Wagner M, Paré JF, Bélanger L, Dufort D. Nuclear receptor NR5A2 is required for proper primitive streak morphogenesis. Dev Dyn. 2006; 235(12):3359-69.

Paré JF, Malenfant D, Courtemanche C, Jacob-Wagner M, Roy S, Allard D, Bélanger L. The fetoprotein transcription factor (FTF) gene is essential to embryogenesis and cholesterol homeostasis and is regulated by a DR4 element. J Biol Chem. 2004; 279(20):21206-16.

Contact Details:
email: parejf@bbri.org, tel. 617-658-7824