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Roland Abi Nahed, Researcher 

Functions

Dr. Roland Abi Nahed/ Researcher
 

Short biography

I am a biomedical researcher with a PhD in Biodiversity and Oncogenesis from Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, France), and a Master’s degree in reproductive biology and assisted reproductive technologies. My academic and professional journey has been shaped by several postdoctoral positions, through which I’ve contributed to advancing biomedical science in both fundamental and applied research contexts.

My doctoral work focused on the role of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) in fertilization, leading to the identification of the specific involvement of PLA2 group X (mGX) in triggering the acrosome reaction. This research led to the discovery of a molecule that extends sperm viability and the fertilization window, offering promising applications in assisted reproductive technologies.

I have also investigated the NLRP7 inflammasome, elucidating its dual role in normal and tumoral placentation. This work contributed to our understanding of how NLRP7 regulates immune responses during pregnancy and in gestational pathologies such as choriocarcinoma.

In my more recent work, I developed the HealthProbe project in collaboration with Prof. Uwe Schlattner. This project centers on AMPfret, a genetically encoded biosensor that allows for the real-time and spatially resolved monitoring of cellular energy status. AMPfret is a powerful tool for evaluating the impact of compounds on cell health and metabolic function, with applications spanning pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and academic research. Alongside this, I continue to contribute to collaborative projects on cellular metabolism and bioenergetics, resulting in multiple publications.

Keywords

Metabolism, Tumor microenvironment, AMPK, Biosensors, Inflammasomes, Placenta and Reproduction.
 

Field of interest

My research interests focus on the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a central regulator of cellular energy homeostasis. I explore its diverse roles in health and disease, particularly in metabolism, reproduction (placenta), and skin biology. I’m especially interested in how AMPK signaling adapts to cellular stress and how its dysregulation contributes to pathologies. Through the development of biosensor technologies, I aim to better understand AMPK dynamics and support the discovery of targeted therapeutic strategies across a range of biomedical applications.

Grants:

I have led and co-led several research projects based on my AMPfret biosensor technology, including collaborations with La Prairie (Switzerland) and Beiersdorf (Germany) to evaluate the impact of cosmetic compounds on cellular energy in skin cells. I also received a maturation grant from SATT Linksium to develop standardized assays for use in pharmaceutical and cosmetic research. Additionally, I worked on a funded project with Swissgenetics and IMV-Technologies focused on sperm physiology and fertility.

Conferences:

  1. February 2025: Biophysical Society 2025 Meeting (Los Angeles USA): FRET-based nanosensor AMPfret distinguishes physiological from toxic stress. (Oral). Roland Abi Nahed, Ali Hussein, Francesco Aulicino, Julia M. Weise and Uwe Schlattner. 

  2. Octobre 2023: 12th International Meeting on AMPK (Mantra, Lorne, Australia): An AMPK-based fluorescent nanosensor distinguishes physiological from toxic stress. (Oral presentation). Roland Abi Nahed, Francesco Aulicino, Florine Cottaz, Alaa Al Assi, Eric Fontaine, Marie Carriere, Imre Berger, and Uwe Schlattner 

  3. Octobre 2023:  Journée Collaborative Bluesky Meeting (world trade center Grenoble): HEALTHPROBE: Cell health monitoring with a synthetic biosensor. (Pitch). Roland Abi Nahed. (Top 10 selected winner) (invited)

  4. Avril 2023: Biophysical Society 2023 Meeting (San Diego USA): FRET-based nanosensor AMPfret distinguishes physiological from toxic stress. . Roland Abi Nahed, Francesco Aulicino2, Florine Cottaz, Alaa Al Assi, Eric Fontaine, Marie Carriere, Imre Berger, and Uwe Schlattner 

  5. Septembre 2022: 5th European Workshop on AMPK and AMPK-related kinases (Glasgow UK): Detecting energy state in cells stably expressing the FRET-based nanosensor AMPfret (oral). Roland Abi Nahed1, Francesco Aulicino, Florine Cottaz, Alaa Al Assi, Eric Fontaine, Marie Carriere, Imre Berger, and Uwe Schlattner (invité)

  6. Juillet 2021: Society for reproductive investigation 68th annual scientific meeting (Boston): Evidence-based view of safety and effectiveness of prokineticin receptors antagonists during pregnancy prokineticin receptors antagonists during pregnancy.  Deborah Reynaud, Frédéric Sergent, Roland Abi Nahed, Wael Traboulsi, Constance Collet, Padma Murthi, Nadia Alfaidy, Mohamed Benharouga.
  7. Juillet 2021: Society for reproductive investigation 68th annual scientific meeting (Boston): High NLRP7 expression promotes choriocarcinoma development: Proof of concept from clinical and preclinical studies. Deborah Reynaud, Roland Abi Nahed, Nicolas Lemaitre, Pierre-adrien Bolze, Touria Aboussaouira, Padma Murthi, Rima Slim, Mohamed Benharouga, Nadia Alfaidy

  8. Septembre 2017 :  Sixième colloque International du Groupe de la Francophonie Placentaire (GFP) Caractérisation de l’expression de NLRP7 dans les grossesses normales et pathologiques : cas du retard de croissance intra-utérin (Oral) Roland Abi Nahed, Déborah Reynaud, Sophie Ndagijimana, Wael Traboulsi, Mohamed Benharouga, and Nadia Alfaidy (invited)

  9. Septembre 2017 : Sixième colloque International du Groupe de la Francophonie Placentaire (GFP) Caractérisation du rôle de la protéine kinase CK2 dans le placenta humain. (Oral) Roland Abi Nahed, Solène Lartigue, Sophie Ndagijimana, Claude Cochet, Odile Filhol and Nadia Alfaidy.

  10. Août 2017:  IFPA 2017 “Placenta: Journey of a lifetime" United Kingdom (Manchester): NLRP7 expression in normal and IUGR pregnancies: Physiological and physio-pathological implications. (Talk and holder of the new investigator award). Roland Abi Nahed, Déborah Reynaud, Sophie Ndagijimana, Wael Traboulsi, Marie-Noëlle Dieudonné, Pascale Hoffmann, Mohamed Benharouga, and Nadia Alfaidy (invité)

  11. Mai 2017 24th G2L2 Meeting Lyon, FRANCE: NLRP7 expression in normal and IUGR pregnancies: Physiological and physio-pathological implications. (G2L2 poster 19th of May). (oral+ Best poster prize) Roland Abi Nahed, Déborah Reynaud, Sophie Ndagijimana, Wael Traboulsi, Mohamed Benharouga and Nadia Alfaidy. 

  12. Avril 2017: Cancéropôle Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (CLARA), Lyon France: Characterization of NLRP7 expression and regulation in normal and tumor human placentation during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Best poster and oral communication Lauriat award). Roland Abi Nahed, Déborah Reynaud, Alexia Wetzel, Wael Traboulsi, Mohamed Benharouga, Touria Aboussaouira and Nadia Alfaidy.

  13. Avril 2015 : Société d’Andrologie de Langue Française (SALF), Dijon, France : Implication of different phospholipases in the acrosome reaction of spermatozoids in mice (poster). Roland Abi Nahed, Gérard Lambeau, Pierre Ray, Christophe Arnoult and Sylviane Hennebicq.

Publications:

  1. Roland Abi Nahed**, Ali Hussein, Cécile Cottet-Rousselle, Alexandra Vogelsang, Francesco Aulicino, Imre Berger, Thomas Blatt, Julia M. Weise, Uwe Schlattner (2025). Coenzyme Q10 protects keratinocytes against oxidation-induced energy stress: a spatio-temporal analysis. Scientific Reports.

  2. Frédéric Sergent, Daniel Vaiman, Tiphaine Raia-Barjat, Hadi Younes, Christel Marquette, Morgane Desseux, Roland Abi Nahed, Vi Kieu, V.D. Nguyen, Mathilde Keck, Pascale Hoffmann, Padma Murthi, Mohamed Benharouga, Nadia Alfaidy (2024). Antagonisation of prokineticin receptor-2 attenuates Preeclampsia symptoms. JCMM

  3. Abi Nahed, R.**., Pelosse, M., Aulicino, F., Cottaz, F., Berger, I., and Schlattner, U. (2024) FRET-based sensor for measuring adenine nucleotide binding to AMPK. Chapter 10.1007/978-1-0716-4284-9_2 Nutrient Sensing in Eukaryotes

  4. Zeaiter, N., L. Belot, V. Cunin, R.A. Nahed, M. Tokarska-Schlattner, A. Le Gouellec, C. Petosa, S. Khochbin, and U. Schlattner, Acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACSS2) does not generate butyryl- and crotonyl-CoA. Mol Metab, 2024. 81: p. 101903.

  5. Traboulsi, W., Reynaud, D., Abi Nahed, R., Sergent, F., Alfaidy, N., and Benharouga, M. (2024) In Vivo Quantitative Assessment of Gestational Choriocarcinoma Development and Progression Using Luminescent Trophoblast Cells. Methods Mol Biol 2728, 77-85

  6. Abi Nahed, R., Safwan-Zaiter, H., Gemy, K., Lyko, C., Boudaud, M., Desseux, M., Marquette, C., Barjat, T., Alfaidy, N., and Benharouga, M. (2023) The Multifaceted Functions of Prion Protein (PrP(C)) in Cancer. Cancers (Basel) 15

  7. Reynaud, D., Alfaidy, N., Collet, C., Lemaitre, N., Sergent, F., Miege, C., Soleilhac, E., Assi, A. A., Murthi, P., Courtois, G., Fauvarque, M. O., Slim, R., Benharouga, M., and Abi Nahed, R**. (2023) NLRP7 Enhances Choriocarcinoma Cell Survival and Camouflage in an Inflammasome Independent Pathway. Cells 12

  8. Abi Nahed, R., Elkhoury Mikhael, M., Reynaud, D., Collet, C., Lemaitre, N., Michy, T., Hoffmann, P., Sergent, F., Marquette, C., Murthi, P., Raia-Barjat, T., Alfaidy, N., and Benharouga, M. (2022) Role of NLRP7 in Normal and Malignant Trophoblast Cells. Biomedicines 10

  9. Fontaine, E., Papin, C., Martinez, G., Le Gras, S., Abi Nahed, R., Hery, P., Buchou, T., Ouararhni, K., Favier, B., Gautier, T., Sabir, J. S. M., Gerard, M., Bednar, J., Arnoult, C., Dimitrov, S., and Hamiche, A. (2022) Dual role of histone variant H3.3B in spermatogenesis: positive regulation of piRNA transcription and implication in X-chromosome inactivation. Nucleic acids research 50, 7350-7366

  10. Abi Nahed, R., Dhellemmes, M., Payre, C., Le Blevec, E., Perrier, J. P., Hennebicq, S., Escoffier, J., Ray, P. F., Loeuillet, C., Lambeau, G., and Arnoult, C. (2022) Treatment of Mouse Sperm with a Non-Catalytic Mutant of PLA2G10 Reveals That PLA2G10 Improves In Vitro Fertilization through Both Its Enzymatic Activity and as Ligand of PLA2R1. International journal of molecular sciences 23

  11. Reynaud, D., Sergent, F., Abi Nahed, R., Traboulsi, W., Collet, C., Marquette, C., Hoffmann, P., Balboni, G., Zhou, Q. Y., Murthi, P., Benharouga, M., and Alfaidy, N. (2021) Evidence-Based View of Safety and Effectiveness of Prokineticin Receptors Antagonists during Pregnancy. Biomedicines 9

  12. Reynaud, D., Abi Nahed, R., Lemaitre, N., Bolze, P. A., Traboulsi, W., Sergent, F., Battail, C., Filhol, O., Sapin, V., Boufettal, H., Hoffmann, P., Aboussaouira, T., Murthi, P., Slim, R., Benharouga, M., and Alfaidy, N. (2021) NLRP7 Promotes Choriocarcinoma Growth and Progression through the Establishment of an Immunosuppressive Microenvironment. Cancers (Basel) 13 

  13. Abi Nahed, R**., Reynaud, D., Lemaitre, N., Lartigue, S., Roelants, C., Vaiman, D., Benharouga, M., Cochet, C., Filhol, O., and Alfaidy, N. (2020) Protein kinase CK2 contributes to placental development: physiological and pathological implications. J Mol Med (Berl) 98, 123-133

  14. Roland Abi Nahed, C. C., Kevin Gemy, Wael Traboulsi, Nicolas Lemaitre, Pierre-Adrien Bolze, Pascale Hoffmann, Mohamed Benharouga, Nadia Alfaidy. . (2020) Multifaceted Functions of Prokineticins in Reproductive Cancers and Proposed Associated Therapies. Journal of Cancer Science and Clinical Therapeutics 408-423.

  15. Hasna, J., Abi Nahed, R., Sergent, F., Alfaidy, N., and Bouron, A. (2019) The Deletion of TRPC6 Channels Perturbs Iron and Zinc Homeostasis and Pregnancy Outcome in Mice. Cell Physiol Biochem 52, 455-467

  16. Abi Nahed, R., Reynaud, D., Borg, A. J., Traboulsi, W., Wetzel, A., Sapin, V., Brouillet, S., Dieudonne, M. N., Dakouane-Giudicelli, M., Benharouga, M., Murthi, P., and Alfaidy, N. (2019) NLRP7 is increased in human idiopathic fetal growth restriction and plays a critical role in trophoblast differentiation. J Mol Med (Berl) 97, 355-367

  17. Reynaud, D., Sergent, F., Abi Nahed, R., Brouillet, S., Benharouga, M., and Alfaidy, N. (2018) EG-VEGF Maintenance Over Early Gestation to Develop a Pregnancy-Induced Hypertensive Animal Model. Methods Mol Biol 1710, 317-324

  18. Berkane, N., Liere, P., Lefevre, G., Alfaidy, N., Abi Nahed, R., Vincent, J., Oudinet, J. P., Pianos, A., Cambourg, A., Rozenberg, P., Galichon, P., Rousseau, A., Simon, T., Schumacher, M., Chabbert-Buffet, N., and Hertig, A. (2018) Abnormal steroidogenesis and aromatase activity in preeclampsia. Placenta 69, 40-49

  19. Abi Nahed, R., Martinez, G., Hograindleur, J. P., Le Blevec, E., Camugli, S., Le Boucher, R., Ray, P. F., Escoffier, J., Schmitt, E., and Arnoult, C. (2018) Slo3 K+ channel blocker clofilium extends bull and mouse sperm-fertilizing competence. Reproduction 156, 463-476

  20. Martinez, G., Hograindleur, J. P., Voisin, S., Abi Nahed, R., Abd El Aziz, T. M., Escoffier, J., Bessonnat, J., Fovet, C. M., De Waard, M., Hennebicq, S., Aucagne, V., Ray, P. F., Schmitt, E., Bulet, P., and Arnoult, C. (2017) Spermaurin, an La1-like peptide from the venom of the scorpion Scorpio maurus palmatus, improves sperm motility and fertilization in different mammalian species. Molecular human reproduction 23, 116-131

  21. Abi Nahed, R., Martinez, G., Escoffier, J., Yassine, S., Karaouzene, T., Hograindleur, J. P., Turk, J., Kokotos, G., Ray, P. F., Bottari, S., Lambeau, G., Hennebicq, S., and Arnoult, C. (2016) Progesterone-induced Acrosome Exocytosis Requires Sequential Involvement of Calcium-independent Phospholipase A2beta (iPLA2beta) and Group X Secreted Phospholipase A2 (sPLA2). The Journal of biological chemistry 291, 3076-3089

  22. Yassine, S., Escoffier, J., Abi Nahed, R., Pierre, V., Karaouzene, T., Ray, P. F., and Arnoult, C. (2015) Dynamics of Sun5 localization during spermatogenesis in wild type and Dpy19l2 knock-out mice indicates that Sun5 is not involved in acrosome attachment to the nuclear envelope. PloS one 10, e0118698

  23. Abi Nahed, R., Escoffier, J., Revel, C., Jeammet, L., Payre, C., Ray, P. F., Hennebicq, S., Lambeau, G., and Arnoult, C. (2014) The effect of group X secreted phospholipase A2 on fertilization outcome is specific and not mimicked by other secreted phospholipases A2 or progesterone. Biochimie 99, 88-95



    Name: Roland Abi Nahed

    Email: roland.abi-nahedatuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (roland[dot]abi-nahed[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

    Affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, INSERM U1055, Laboratory of Fundamental and Applied Bioenergetics (LBFA), 2280 Rue de la Piscine, 38058 Grenoble, France.

    Homepage: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8767-6462

    Interests: Metabolism, Tumor microenvironment, AMPK, Biosensors, Inflammasomes, Placenta and Reproduction

Submitted on April 24, 2025

Updated on April 24, 2025