Mr. Andrea Akkawi  | Transcription | Young Scientist Award

PhD | Centre National de la Recherche scientifique | France

Mr. Andrea Akkawi is a dedicated researcher in molecular and cellular biology, currently holding an individual ANRS fellowship at the Institut de Génétique Humaine, UMR 9002, Montpellier, in the Gene Regulation team led by R. Kiernan (DR1 CNRS). Her work focuses on elucidating the role of PAXT complex proteins in controlling the abundance and polyadenylation of PROMPT non-coding RNAs and their broader influence on gene regulation. She earned her PhD in Biology and Health (2017–2020) under the supervision of M. Mougel (DR2 CNRS, HDR) and S. Laine (MCU UM) at the Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier, where she investigated the accessory P50 protein of Murine Leukemia Virus in viral replication, cell transformation, and RNA export. Mr. Andrea Akkawi holds a Master’s degree in Functional Genomics and Proteomics from Université Saint Joseph, Beirut (2014–2016), where she studied antibiotic resistance mechanisms in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and a Bachelor’s in Laboratory Medical Sciences (2011–2014). She has over 49 scholarly documents with 50 citations, an h-index of 4, and her work has appeared in journals including Nature Communications, Retrovirology, and BMC Biology. Mr. Andrea Akkawi is also experienced in student mentorship, ATAC-seq and sRNA-seq techniques, and has participated in several international conferences.

Profile : Scopus | ORCID

Featured Publication 

• Contreras, X., Depierre, D., Akkawi, C., Srbic, M., Helsmoortel, M., Nogaret, M., LeHars, M., Salifou, K., Heurteau, A., Cuvier, O., & Kiernan, R. (2023). PAP associates with PAXT nuclear exosome to control the stability of PROMPT ncRNAs. Nature Communications, 14, 6745.

• Akkawi, C., Feuillard, J., Diaz, F. L., Godefroy, N., Belkhir, K., Mougel, M., & Laine, S. (2023). Murine leukemia virus (MLV) P50 protein induces cell transformation via transcriptional regulatory function. Retrovirology, 20, 16.

• Grasso, G., Akkawi, C., Franckhauser, C., Nait-Saidi, R., Bello, M., Barbier, J., & Kiernan, R. (2022). NF90 interacts with components of RISC and modulates association of Ago2 with mRNA. BMC Biology, 20, 194.

• Zhao, W., Akkawi, C., Mougel, M., & Ross, S. R. (2020). Murine leukemia virus P50 protein counteracts APOBEC3 by blocking its packaging. Journal of Virology, 94, e00032-20.

• Mougel, M., Akkawi, C., Chamontin, C., Feuillard, J., Pessel-Vivares, L., Socol, M., & Laine, S. (2020). NXF1 and CRM1 nuclear export pathways orchestrate nuclear export, translation and packaging of murine leukemia retrovirus unspliced RNA. RNA Biology, 17, 528–538.