François Fagotto received a “licence” in Biology and then a doctorate in Zoology from the University of Neuchâtel. As a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University (1991-1993), he worked on yolk degradation as it relates to the regulation of pH in endosomes. From 1993 to 1997, Dr Fagotto was a post-doctoral fellow at Sloan-Kettering Institute, and was from 1997 to 2002, Group Leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany. François Fagotto joined the Department of Biology, where he is Associate Professor, in 2002.

Research in the Fagotto laboratory

During development, the embryo becomes progressively patterned in increasingly refined regions that will ultimately give rise to the various cell types and tissues.

This patterning is controlled by cell-cell signals that trigger intracellular cascades that lead to changes in gene expression and cell fate. It is particularly important that the various cell populations adopt specific cell behaviors, as the embryo must be extensively reorganized through a series of highly coordinated morphogenetic processes: cells change their shape, their contacts with neighbors, and undergo large migrations, either as single cells, group of cells, or very often as whole masses.

The Fagotto laboratory addresses specific aspects of both embryonic patterning and morphogenesis using a cell biological approach. As well as looking at the intracellular transduction of a major signaling cascade, the Wnt-ß-catenin pathway, the Fagotto laboratory is also attempting to unravel the basic cellular mechanisms that regulate cell mixing. In particular, they want to understand how mixing is prevented at the boundary between two newly formed tissues, using the frog embryo as a model system.

Selected Publications

Hendriksen J., Fagotto F., van der Velde H., van Schie M., Noordermeer J., and M. Fornerod (2005).  RanBP3 enhances nuclear export of active β-catenin independently of CRM1. J. Cell Biol. 171, 785-797.

Reintsch W.E., Habring-Müller A., Wang R., Schohl, A. and F. Fagotto (2005). ß-catenin controls cell sorting at the notochord–somite boundary independently of cadherin-mediated adhesion. J. Cell Biol. 170, 675-686.

Wiechens, N., Heinle, K., Englmeier, L., Schohl, A. and F. Fagotto (2004). Nucleo-cytoplasmic Shuttling of Axin, a Negative Regulator of the Wnt-ß-Catenin Pathway. J Biol Chem. 279: 5263-5267.

Schohl, A. and F. Fagotto (2003). A role for ß-catenin in mesoderm induction in Xenopus. EMBO J 22: 3303-3313.

Henderson, B. and F. Fagotto (2002). The ins and outs of APC and b-catenin nuclear transport. EMBO Rep. 3: 834 - 839 Review.

Schohl, A. and F. Fagotto (2002). ß-catenin, MAPK, and Smad signaling during early Xenopus development. Development 129: 37-52 .

Fagotto, F., Eek-Hoon, J., Zeng, L., Kurth, T., Joos, T., Kaufmann, C. and F. Costantini  (1999). Domains of Axin involved in protein-protein interactions, Wnt pathway inhibition and intracellular localization. J. Cell Biol. 145: 741-756.