Dr Emmanuel Dupont

Emmanuel Dupont has a long interest in gap junctions, the structures that allow cell to cell communication and therefore, are responsible for the propagation of the action potential between heart cells. This has led him to acquire a very strong background in cell biology in the various internationally renowned laboratories where he has worked in the past.

For his PhD with Professor D. Gros to characterise gap junction protein in the heart using newly developed antibodies (University of Aix-Marseille II); with Professor J. Trosko, on the involvement of intercellular communication in cancer progression and in cell growth control (Michigan State University) and with Professor P.Meda, on the relation between intercellular communication and insulin secretion of pancreatic B-cells (Geneva Medical School).

He joined Professor Nick Severs' group at the NHLI in 1995 to work on gap junction remodeling in heart failure. His main interest is now relating the co-expression of junctional proteins (or connexins) to electrical conduction in living, two dimensional cell systems that can be extrapolated to three dimensional structures.

New biological tools devised by Dr Dupont are opening new research directions and collaborations. The sub-cloning of the myocitic HL-1 cell lines permit the study of both action potential generation and propagation and this has generated a strong link between Dr MacLeod and Prof Severs teams.

Dr Dupont has established a number of international collaborations with other laboratories using transfected cell lines, antibodies and mammalian expression plasmids. Such collaborations include Dr JC Herve in University of Poitiers (France), Professor D Spray in Albert Einstein College (USA) and Professor R Weingart in University of Bern (Switzerland). A less conventional collaboration stemming from this work has started with Dr D Colling in high energy physics (Imperial College) to use computer simulation/models to investigate co-localisation/connexin assembly and putative protein-protein interactions.

He presents a few specialist lectures in the BSc course dealing with the electrophysiological interactions between communication, action potential propagation and active membrane properties, a subject that is rarely taught in medical school.