Publications by Graham Knott | EPFL Graph Search

Lamellar Schwann Cells in the Pacinian Corpuscle Potentiate Vibration Perception

Graham Knott, Mary-Claude Croisier-Coeytaux, Jérôme Blanc

Pacinian corpuscles are among the most sensitive mechanoreceptors found in vertebrates, and they are tuned to vibrations in the highest perceptible frequency range (100 to 2000 Hz). One of their anatomical hallmarks is the onion-like cell layers surroundin ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2025

Membrane mechanics dictate axonal pearls-on-a-string morphology and function

Graham Knott

Axons are ultrathin membrane cables that are specialized for the conduction of action potentials. Although their diameter is variable along their length, how their morphology is determined is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that unmyelinated axons of the mou ...

2025

Differential role of C-terminal truncations on alpha-synuclein pathology and Lewy body formation

Graham Knott, Mary-Claude Croisier-Coeytaux, Anass Chiki, Nadine Aït Bouziad, Romain Hamelin, Anne-Laure Mahul Mellier, Niran Maharjan, Melek Firat Altay, Jonathan Jean-Pierre Ricci, Somanath Jagannath, Galina Limorenko, Salvatore Novello, Yllza Jasiqi

Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) post-translational modifications (PTM), especially phosphorylation at serine 129 and C-terminal truncations, are highly enriched in Lewy bodies (LB), Lewy neurites, and other pathological aggregates in Parkinson's disease and synucle ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Mechanisms of axoneme and centriole elimination in Naegleria gruberi

Graham Knott, Pierre Gönczy, Mary-Claude Croisier-Coeytaux, Coralie Busso, Gabriela Garcia Rodriguez, Alexander Woglar

The early branching eukaryote Naegleria gruberi can transform transiently from an amoeboid life form lacking centrioles and flagella to a flagellate life form where these elements are present, followed by reversion to the amoeboid state. The mechanisms imp ...

SPRINGERNATURE2024

Mechanopathology of biofilm-like Mycobacterium tuberculosis cords

Nicolas Jean Philippe Guex, Graham Knott, John McKinney, Neeraj Dhar, Jessica Sordet, Maxime Jan, Kunal Sharma, Mélanie Thérèse Marie Hannebelle, Vivek Vijay Thacker, Richa Mishra

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) cultured axenically without detergent forms biofilm-like cords, a clinical identifier of virulence. In lung-on-chip (LoC) and mouse models, cords in alveolar cells contribute to suppression of innate immune signaling via nu ...

Cell Press2023

Correlative light and volume electron microscopy to study brain development

Graham Knott

Recent advances in volume electron microscopy (EM) have been driving our thorough understanding of the brain architecture. Volume EM becomes increasingly powerful when cells and their subcellular structures that are imaged in light microscopy are correlate ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2023

Stable isotope labeling and ultra-high-resolution NanoSIMS imaging reveal alpha-synuclein-induced changes in neuronal metabolism in vivo

Bernard Schneider, Graham Knott, Bohumil Maco, Anders Meibom, Stéphane Laurent Escrig, Sofia Carmen Suzanne Spataro, Louise Helene Soegaard Jensen

In Parkinson's disease, pathogenic factors such as the intraneuronal accumulation of the protein alpha-synuclein affect key metabolic processes. New approaches are required to understand how metabolic dysregulations cause degeneration of vulnerable subtype ...

2023

Dynamics of CLIMP-63 S-acylation control ER morphology

Kathryn Hess Bellwald, Béatrice Kunz, Graham Knott, Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Laurence Gouzi Abrami, Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Patrick Alain Sandoz, Robin Alexander Denhardt-Eriksson, Sylvia Ho, Luciano Andres Abriata, Catherine Maclachlan, Gard Spreemann

A key player in the formation of endoplasmic reticulum sheets is CLIMP-63, but mechanistic details remained elusive. Here authors combined cellular experiments and mathematical modelling to show that S-acylation of CLIMP-63 regulates its function by mediat ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Large-scale morphometry of the subarachnoid space of the optic nerve

Graham Knott, Gilles Fourestey

BackgroundThe meninges, formed by dura, arachnoid and pia mater, cover the central nervous system and provide important barrier functions. Located between arachnoid and pia mater, the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-filled subarachnoid space (SAS) features a var ...

BMC2023

Retromer deficiency in Tauopathy models enhances the truncation and toxicity of Tau

Graham Knott, Evelyne Ruchti, Catherine Maclachlan, Greta Limoni, Brian Donal McCabe, Wei Jiao

Alteration of the levels, localization or post-translational processing of the microtubule associated protein Tau is associated with many neurodegenerative disorders. Here we develop adult-onset models for human Tau (hTau) toxicity in Drosophila that enabl ...

Nature Portfolio2022

ADAMTS18(+) villus tip telocytes maintain a polarized VEGFA signaling domain and fenestrations in nutrient-absorbing intestinal blood vessels

Graham Knott

The small intestinal villus tip is the first point of contact for lumen-derived substances including nutrients and microbial products. Electron microscopy studies from the early 1970s uncovered unusual spatial organization of small intestinal villus tip bl ...

Nature Portfolio2022

A subpopulation of cortical VIP-expressing interneurons with highly dynamic spines

Graham Knott, Jérôme Blanc, Christina Georgiou, Kok Sin Lee

Structural synaptic plasticity may underlie experience and learning-dependent changes in cortical circuits. In contrast to excitatory pyramidal neurons, insight into the structural plasticity of inhibitory neurons remains limited. Interneurons are divided ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Deep Active Surface Models

Pascal Fua, Graham Knott, Pamuditha Udaranga Wickramasinghe

Active Surface Models have a long history of being useful to model complex 3D surfaces. But only Active Contours have been used in conjunction with deep networks, and then only to produce the data term as well as meta-parameter maps controlling them. In th ...

2021

Maturation of Complex Synaptic Connections of Layer 5 Cortical Axons in the Posterior Thalamic Nucleus Requires SNAP25

Graham Knott, Catherine Maclachlan

Synapses are able to form in the absence of neuronal activity, but how is their subsequent maturation affected in the absence of regulated vesicular release? We explored this question using 3D electron microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy analyses in t ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2021

Mitofusin-2 in nucleus accumbens regulates anxiety and depression-like behaviors through mitochondrial and neuronal actions

Graham Knott, Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez

Background Emerging evidence points at a central role of mitochondria in psychiatric disorders. However, little is known about the molecular players that regulate mitochondria in neural circuits regulating anxiety and depression, and how they impact on neu ...

2021

3D Ultrastructure of Synaptic Inputs to Distinct GABAergic Neurons in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

Carl Petersen, Graham Knott, Jérôme Blanc, Catherine Maclachlan

Synapses are the fundamental elements of the brain's complicated neural networks. Although the ultrastructure of synapses has been extensively studied, the difference in how synaptic inputs are organized onto distinct neuronal types is not yet fully unders ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2021

Nuclear and cytoplasmic huntingtin inclusions exhibit distinct biochemical composition, interactome and ultrastructural properties

Graham Knott, Hilal Lashuel, Mary-Claude Croisier-Coeytaux, Anne-Laure Mahul Mellier, Niran Maharjan, Johannes Burtscher, Nathan Alain Denis Riguet

Despite the strong evidence linking the aggregation of the Huntingtin protein (Htt) to the pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease (HD), the mechanisms underlying Htt aggregation and neurodegeneration remain poorly understood. Herein, we investigated the ultr ...

Springer Nature2021

Early invasion of the bladder wall by solitary bacteria protects UPEC from antibiotics and neutrophil swarms in an organoid model

Graham Knott, John McKinney, Neeraj Dhar, François Signorino-Gelo, Kunal Sharma, Vivek Vijay Thacker, Maria Clapés Cabrer

2021

Toward Biophysical Mechanisms of Neocortical Computation after 50 Years of Barrel Cortex Research

Carl Petersen, Graham Knott, Felix Schürmann

2021

Dynamic persistence of UPEC intracellular bacterial communities in a human bladder-chip model of urinary tract infection

Graham Knott, John McKinney, Neeraj Dhar, François Signorino-Gelo, Kunal Sharma, Thomas Marie Simonet, Vivek Vijay Thacker

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) proliferate within superficial bladder umbrella cells to form intracellular bacterial communities (IBCs) during early stages of urinary tract infections. However, the dynamic responses of IBCs to host stresses and anti ...

2021