Hulea Lab website

The Hulea Lab investigates how mRNA translation and cellular metabolism work together to shape cell function, cell state and adaptation. Its research focuses on cancer biology, with complementary projects exploring these processes in non-cancer contexts.

The team studies how signalling pathways regulate protein synthesis, including through the mTORC1–4E-BP–eIF4F axis, and how changes in gene expression and nutrient use support metabolic plasticity and stress responses. It also investigates the vulnerabilities that emerge from these adaptive programmes and how targeting them could improve responses to cancer treatment.

Cancer research in the lab spans melanoma, ovarian cancer and acute myeloid leukemia, including paediatric acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Complementary projects investigate links between translation, metabolism and cell state in immune and adipose biology.

The laboratory combines polysome profiling, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, stable-isotope tracing and measurements of cellular bioenergetics with molecular and cellular biology and experimental cancer models.

Laura Hulea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Medical Specialties at Université de Montréal and a principal investigator at the Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CR-HMR). Her laboratory investigates how mRNA translation and cellular metabolism work together to shape cell function and adaptation, with a focus on cancer biology. She joined Université de Montréal in 2019 and established her laboratory at CR-HMR in March of that year. She was appointed Assistant Professor in 2020 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2024.

Her training spans biochemical engineering at INSA Lyon and structural and functional biochemistry at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry at McGill University in 2013, followed by postdoctoral research with Ivan Topisirovic and Michael Pollak at the Lady Davis Institute, McGill University, from 2013 to March 2019.

Laura established the metabolomics platform at CR-HMR and led it from 2021 to 2025. She chairs the centre’s Scientific Activities Committee and received its Recognition Award in 2026 for her contribution to its scientific activities and development. She holds an FRQS Junior 2 Research Scholar Award (2024–2028), following a Junior 1 award (2020–2024).

Prépublication · 2026

eIF4A inhibition disrupts resistance-associated translational and metabolic programs in BRAF-mutant melanoma
Schcolnik-Cabrera, Takdenti, Sadr Hashemi Nejad et al. bioRxiv (2026).

Publications sélectionnées

Une sélection de travaux du laboratoire, de projets collaboratifs et de recherches antérieures de Laura Hulea.

• Translational control of leukemic metabolism and disease progression
  Mercier et al. Trends in Cell Biology (2025), 35(11):971–986.

• Protocol to perform polysome profiling in primary differentiating murine adipocytes
  De Siqueira, Nouhi et al. STAR Protocols (2025), 6(2):103799.

• Intracellular Phosphoflow Cytometry of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patient-Derived Xenotransplants
  Gife et al. Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) (2025), (220):e68244.

• CBFA2T3-GLIS2-dependent pediatric acute megakaryoblastic leukemia is driven by GLIS2 and sensitive to navitoclax
  Neault et al. Cell Reports (2023), 42(9):113084.

• EIF4A inhibition targets bioenergetic homeostasis in AML MOLM-14 cells in vitro and in vivo and synergizes with cytarabine and venetoclax
  Fooks et al. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2022), 41:340.

• Translational and HIF-1α-Dependent Metabolic Reprogramming Underpin Metabolic Plasticity and Responses to Kinase Inhibitors and Biguanides
  Hulea, Gravel, Morita et al. Cell Metabolism (2018), 28(6):817–832.e8.

Consulter les publications sur PubMed