Assoc. Prof. Thibault, Guillaume

The Thibault Lab studies how cells sense and respond to stress, with a focus on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a critical organelle for protein folding and lipid regulation. Dysregulation of ER stress responses is a common feature in many diseases, including metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration, and aging-related conditions.

Our research centers on the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular stress pathway that determines whether cells adapt or initiate programmed death. We investigate how different types of stress, such as lipid imbalance, oxidative stress, and infection, activate distinct branches of the UPR, and how this affects gene expression, organelle function, and overall cellular homeostasis.

Using a multi-organism strategy that includes yeast, C. elegans, mammalian cells, and mouse models, we explore how ER stress responses are rewired during senescence and chronic inflammation. We also examine how stress pathways contribute to tissue damage in contexts such as impaired wound healing and retinal degeneration.

Complementing our experimental work, we develop bioinformatic tools and pipelines to identify conserved transcriptional signatures of ER stress across species and conditions. These efforts are helping to pinpoint actionable targets within stress response networks.

Our long-term goal is to uncover how stress adaptation fails in disease and aging and to identify ways to selectively restore protective stress responses without triggering harmful side effects. Ultimately, our work aims to inform therapeutic strategies for conditions where stress response dysfunction is a key driver.

Research Areas

Cellular Stress Responses, Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) Stress, Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), Lipid Homeostasis, Senescence