Nicolas Jonckheere is Inserm researcher who will lead the Chemoresistance and therapeutic targeting in pancreatic cancers (PancResT) team (Inserm 2026-2030). He has worked for 25 years on the MUC4 roles and cellular mechanisms in pancreatic cancer. His work is aiming to propose MUC4 and its membrane partners such as ErbB2 oncoreceptor or ion channel TRPM7 as therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer by combining complementary research using in vitro, in vivo (preclinical transgenic mouse models) and ex vivo.  N. Jonckheere is the coordinator of the PLBio24 project (2025-27) on functional interaction between MUC4 and ion channel TRPM7 and associated molecular mechanisms and master regulators. Since 2021, he also initiated an emerging project about chemoresistance and classifications of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Selected publications:

• Auwercx J et al., The kinase domain of TRPM7 interacts with PAK1 and regulates pancreatic cancer cell epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Cell Death Dis. 2025 Apr 24;16(1):335. doi: 10.1038/s41419-025-07665-2.
• Jannin A et al., Identification of metabolite biomarkers for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours using a metabolomic approach.Eur J Endocrinol. 2025 Mar 27;192(4):466-480. doi: 10.1093/ejendo/lvaf055.
• Boukrout et al., Antagonistic Roles of the Tumor Suppressor miR-210-3p and Oncomucin MUC4 Forming a Negative Feedback Loop in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Dec 9;13(24):6197. doi: 10.3390/cancers13246197.