Simon Grelet, Ph.D., joined the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute (MCI) in 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology after completing postdoctoral studies at the Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Grelet’s work focuses on tumor neurogenesis in cancer progression and metastasis. He earned a Ph.D. from Reims University in France.
Research Interests
Grelet’s lab at the MCI explores the molecular mechanisms that are balancing tumor cell phenotypes and their biological impacts on the tumor microenvironment. By using genome-wide sequencing methodologies and CRISPR gene editing libraries applied to lineage tracing models, he and his team are identifying new factors involved in the tumor-stroma interaction. His current research focuses on primary tumor neurogenesis with a special emphasis on the contribution of post-transcriptional regulation and non-coding RNA species in this biological process.
Tumor neurogenesis is closely related to metastatic progression and is associated with poor clinical outcomes. The little-understood molecular mechanisms of cancer-nerve crosstalk represent therapeutic opportunities. His approach is intended to provide new tools in the prevention of cancer dissemination.
USA Health has a comprehensive biomedical research program that spans a wide range of clinical, basic and translational research. At the Mitchell Cancer Institute, our physicians and scientific investigators are searching for breakthrough discoveries to improve the lives of cancer patients.
Earlier in 2023, Simon Grelet, Ph.D., and his colleagues developed a provisional patent for the technology, which involves labeling cells that have received mitochondria from donor cells.
The highly competitive grants provide each investigator $100,000 in funding over a two-year period.
