Our brain is not a fixed organ forever when we become adults. It evolves for our entire life. Product of our genes activity, it is also shaped by permanent modifications linked to our history and our culture. This adult plasticity opens new perspectives for those suffering from a trauma or...
Jean-Antoine Girault aims to identify the intracellular signalization mechanisms which underlie long term behavioral changes. The ability of the nervous system to adapt to a variable environment indeed depends on the modulation and plasticity of synapses between these neurons, which is regulated by their activity and by multiple neuromodulators....
Vertebrate blood vessels form stereotyped, hierarchical branched networks. Specialized endothelial cells (EC) called tip cells located at the extremities of growing capillary sprouts mediate their directional outgrowth. Research in Anne Eichmann’s laboratory is aimed at understanding the function of tip cell-specific signaling molecules, with the goal to manipulate guided vascular...
Mathias Pessiglione’s team wishes to build a more comprehensive account of motivational processes, investigating not only valuation and choice but also belief attribution (how likely are the possible outcomes of our actions) and effort allocation (how much energy we would spend to attain a goal). To these aims, he combines...
Sandrine Etienne-Manneville focuses her research on cell migration and cell polarity. Cellular migration plays a key role in both developing organisms and adults ones, where it is involved in the immune response, scar tissue formation, or the dissemination of tumor cells. Cell polarity is fundamental for migration both for its...
Ivan Rodriguez is exploring the neuronal circuits which are controlling innate behaviors in mammals....
Patrick Delmas is interested in sensory neurons that translate thermal, chemical, and mechanical stimuli. His goal is to understand the molecular basis of somatosensation - the process whereby we experience touch and pain - with an emphasis on identifying molecules that regulate electrogenesis of sensory neurons and detect environmental stimuli....
Alain Chédotal is interested in deciphering how one hand migrating neurons and on the other hand neuron extensions to establish connections between one another (axons) are guided in the developing brain. He is also working with his team on new technologies allowing the visualization of developing neurons. Their research should...
Thomas Préat’s "Genes and Dynamics Memory of Systems" team studies the mechanisms of olfactory aversive and appetitive learning and memory. They develop in fruit flies (drosophila) an integrated approach ranging from molecular studies to behavioral analyses, through the functional study of networks. The activity of biochemical pathways of interest is...
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are at the origin of the neurons and glia generated in the adult vertebrate brain. The success of NSC maintenance and mobilization varies widely among species, brain territories, pathological conditions and individual environment, with important physiological impacts. Laure Bally and her team are using the zebrafish model...