Jean-François did his PhD at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal in the laboratory of molecular genetics of Dr Jacques Drouin, where he studied mechanisms of limb identity determination and the transcriptional properties of Tbx genes governing this process. He was also involved in the characterization of Pitx genes in muscle development.
He joined Claire Rougeulle lab to study the mechanism of X inactivation in human embryonic stem cells. He is now investigating the function of Ftx in the mouse. In 2014, he has been awarded a lecturer position at the University Paris Diderot.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Ouimette JF, Rougeulle C. Many XCI-ting routes to reach the eXACT dose. Nat Cell Biol. 2020 Dec;22(12):1397-1398
• Patrat C, Ouimette JF, Rougeulle C. X chromosome inactivation in human development. Development. 2020 Jan 3;147(1).
• Ouimette JF, Rougeulle C, Veitia RA. Three-dimensional genome architecture in health and disease. Clin Genet. 2018 Jan 29.
• Vallot C. , Ouimette JF., Rougeulle C. Establishment of X chromosome inactivation and epigenomic features of the inactive X depend on cellular contexts. Bioessays. 2016 Jul 8.
• Ouimette JF, Rougeulle C. How Many Non-coding RNAs Does It Take to Compensate Male/Female Genetic Imbalance? (2016) Adv Exp Med Biol. 886:33-49.
• Vallot C*, Ouimette JF*, Makhlouf M, Féraud O, Pontis J, Côme J, Martinat C, Bennaceur-Griscelli A, Lalande M, Rougeulle C. Erosion of X Chromosome Inactivation in Human Pluripotent Cells Initiates with XACT Coating and Depends on a Specific Heterochromatin Landscape.Cell Stem Cell. 2015 Apr 21. pii : S1934-5909(15)00127-7.
• Makhlouf M, Ouimette JF, Oldfield A, Navarro P, Neuillet D, Rougeulle C. A prominent and conserved role for YY1 in Xist transcriptional activation. (2014) Nat Commun. Sep 11 ;5:4878.
• L’honoré A, Commère PH, Ouimette JF, Montarras D, Drouin J, Buckingham M. Redox regulation by Pitx2 and Pitx3 is critical for fetal myogenesis. (2014) Dev Cell. 29(4):392-405.
• L’Honoré A, Ouimette JF, Lavertu-Jolin M, Drouin J. Pitx2 defines alternate pathways acting through MyoD during limb and somitic myogenesis. (2010) Development. 137(22):3847-56.
• Ouimette JF, Lavertu Jolin M, L’honoré A, Gifuni A, Drouin . (2010) Divergent transcriptional activities determine limb identity. Nature Communications 1 (4):35-44 Coulon V*, L’Honoré A*, Ouimette JF*, Dumontier E, van den Munckhof P, Drouin J. (2007) A muscle-specific promoter directs Pitx3 gene expression in skeletal muscle cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry 282(45):33192-200. *Co-first authors
• Nudi M, Ouimette JF, Drouin J. (2005) Bone morphogenic protein (Smad)-mediated repression of proopiomelanocortin transcription by interference with Pitx/Tpit activity. Molecular Endocrinology 19 (5):1329-42.