Odile joined Sophie Polo’s group in January 2014. Recruited as a research assistant (IE2 CNRS) in 1983 after her masters’degree in physiology and pharmacology from the University of Tours, she worked for 9 years in Yves Courtois laboratory on the purification of growth factors to study their activity and action mechanisms. She then moved to the Andre Lwoff and Gustave Roussy Institutes in Villejuif where she worked for 19 years in Alain Sarasin laboratory on the genetic and molecular characterization of the human genome instability disorders Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), Trichothiodystrophy and Cockayne syndrome. In 1999, she started working with Thierry Magnaldo on developing keratinocyte cultures from XP patients for skin reconstruction and for the phenotypic reversion of the disease by retroviral transduction. In 2008, she joined Corinne Dupuy’s group in the research unit headed by Patricia Kannouche where she set up primary and immortalized cultures of patients’ thyrocytes to study their differentiation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Bouvier D., Ferrand J., Chevallier O., Paulsen M.T., Ljungman M., Polo S.E. Dissecting regulatory pathways for transcription recovery following DNA damage reveals a non-canonical function of the histone chaperone HIRA. Nat Commun, 12: 3835, 2021.
• Fortuny A., Chansard A., Caron P., Chevallier O., Leroy O., Renaud O., Polo S.E. Imaging the response to DNA damage in heterochromatin domains reveals core principles of heterochromatin maintenance. Nat Commun, 12:2428, 2021
• Piquet S., Le Parc F., Bai, S-K., Chevallier O., Adam S., Polo S.E. The histone chaperone FACT coordinates H2A.X-dependent signaling and repair of DNA damage. Mol Cell, 72: 888-901, 2018.
• Adam S.*, Dabin J.*, Chevallier O., Leroy O., Baldeyron C., Corpet A., Lomonte P., Renaud O., Almouzni G. and Polo S.E. Real-time tracking of parental histones reveals their contribution to chromatin integrity following DNA damage. Mol Cell, 64: 65-78, 2016. *: equal contribution. Featured article, also highlighted in the ‘Meet the author’ section.
• U. Weyemi, O. Chevallier-Lagente, M. Boufraqech , F. Prenois, F. Courtin, B. Caillou, M. Talbot, M. Dardalhon, A.Al Ghuzlan, JM.Bidart, M. Schlumberger, C. Dupuy. ROS-generating NADPH oxidase NOX4 is a critical mediator in oncogenic H-Ras-induced DNA damage and subsequent senescence. Oncogene, 31:1117-29, 2011.
• A. Valin, S. Barnay-Verdier, T. Robert, H. Ripoche, F. Brellier, O. Chevallier-Lagente, MF. Avril , T. Magnaldo. PTCH1 +/- dermal fibroblasts isolated from healthy skin of Gorlin syndrome patients exhibit features of carcinoma associated fibroblasts. PLoS One, 4: e4818, 2009.
• V. Bergoglio , F. Larcher , O. Chevallier-Lagente, A. Bernheim , O. Danos, A. Sarasin, MD. Rio, T. Magnaldo. Safe selection of genetically manipulated human primary keratinocytes with very high growth potential using CD24. Mol Ther, 15: 2186-93, 2007.
• C. Arnaudeau-Begard, F. Brellier, O. Chevallier-Lagente, J.H.J. Hoeijmakers, F. Bernerd, A. Sarasin, T. Magnaldo. Genetic correction of DNA repair-deficient/cancer-prone xeroderma pigmentosum group C keratinocytes. Hum Gene Ther, 14: 983-96, 2003.
• L. Zeng, X. Quilliet, O. Chevallier-Lagente, E. Eveno, A. Sarasin, M. Mezzina. Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer corrects DNA repair defect of xeroderma pigmentosum cells of complementation groups A, B and C. Gene ther, 4: 1077-84, 1997.
• X. Quilliet, O. Chevallier-Lagente, E. Eveno, E. Stojkovic, A. Destée, A. Sarasin, M. Mezzina. Long term complementation of DNA repair deficient human primary fibroblasts by retroviral transduction of XPD gene. Mutation research, 364: 161-169, 1996.
• E. Eveno, F. Bourre, X. Quilliet, O. Chevallier-Lagente, A.P.M. Eker, W. Kleijer, O. Nikaido, M. Stefanini,, J.H.J. Hoeijmakers, D. Bootsma, J.E. Cleaver, A. Sarasin, M. Mezzina. Different removal of UV-photoproducts in genetically-related Xeroderma Pigmentosum and Trichothiodystrophy diseases. Cancer Res, 55: 4325-4332, 1995.
• M. Mezzina, E. Eveno, O. Chevallier-Lagente, A. Benoit, M. Carreau, W. Vermeulen, J.H.J. Hoeijmakers, M. Stefanini, A.R. Lehman, C.A. Weber, A. Sarasin. Correction by the ERCC2 gene of UV sensitivity and repair deficiency phenotype in a subset ofbtrichothiodystrophy cells. Carcinogenesis, 15: 1493-149, 1994.
• J. Courty, C. Loret, M.Moenner, B. Chevallier, O Lagente, Y. Courtois, D. Barritault. Bovine retina contains three growth factor activities with different affinity to heparin : Eye derived growth factor I, II, III. Biochimie, 1985, 67, 265-269.