The 6th Meeting of the French Microtubule Network will take place on June 26 and 27, 2025 in Toulouse. We hope to see you there!

Previous meetings of the network took place in Marseille (2013), Grenoble (2015), Versailles (2017), Rennes (2019), and Montpellier (2023). The meeting united researchers, post-docs and students from numerous laboratories in France.

This year, we will be happy to welcome Dr Carsten JANKE (Institut Curie, Orsay, F) as a keynote lecturer.

Registration will be possible on the CNRS sciencesconf website later in spring 2025. The fee of 80€ covers meals and refreshments during the meeting. All presentations will take place in the building “4R4”, in the amphitheatre of the Centre de Biologie Intégrative, on the campus of the University Paul Sabatier (Métro Ligne B, station “Ramonville”).

Multiple abstracts will be selected for oral communications. All remaining presentations will be on posters.

Organizers: Yannick GACHET, Andreas MERDES, Sylvie TOURNIER.

 Microtubules are major cytoskeletal elements in eukaryotic cells that play essential roles in intracellular transport and cell division. Microtubules are tubular fibers that undergo dynamic growth and shrinkage at their ends. Interference with microtubule dynamics can affect the successful execution of mitosis, leading to chromosomal instability and cell death. This qualifies microtubules as promising pharmacological targets for anticancer drugs. In fact, multiple microtubule drugs are in clinical use for cancer therapy, belonging to the classes of taxanes and of vinca alkaloides. Moreover, colchicine is a microtubule inhibitor that is used for the treatment of gout. Altogether, understanding the cellular functions of microtubules, the interactions with microtubule-binding proteins, as well as the mechanisms of microtubule assembly will be of major impact for biomedical research. The French Microtubule Meeting will foster the exchange between biologists, chemists, and biophysicists interested in any aspect of microtubule biology.

In this context, the French Microtubule Network Meeting was re-created in 2013, after a series of earlier meetings of the French scientific community in Villefranche-sur-Mer, until 2006. The meeting brings together French teams interested in microtubules, in the form of a symposium during odd years, alternating with an EMBO symposium dedicated to microtubule research.

The presentations will be in English. This year, our keynote speaker will be Dr Carsten JANKE (Institut Curie, Orsay, F), specializing on posttranslational modifications of tubulin. Our meeting also welcomes researchers based outside France, who wish to be in contact with French microtubule specialists.

If you want your contribution to be considered for an oral presentation, please submit an abstract before June 1st, 2025.