2010 Laureate
Current position
Group leader, Research Director
Host institution
Institute of Biology Valrose, Nice, France CNRS, France
braendle@unice.fr
Microscope picture of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
We study the evolution of development within species and populations, with a focus on the question of how genotype-by-environment interactions generate heritable variation in developmental processes and corresponding phenotypic outcomes. Although genotype-by-environment interactions are common and important determinants of phenotypic variation, the mechanisms by which genetic and environmental variation interact to generate trait variation remain poorly understood. Our projects thus aim to characterize the molecular and developmental basis of genotype-by-environment interactions, how such interactions evolve and how they in turn may impact the evolutionary process itself. In our research, we use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and related species as model organisms, and we integrate quantitative experimental approaches from developmental and evolutionary genetics.
• 2003 : Ph. D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, USA, David Stern's lab
• 2004-2007 : Post-doctoral fellow, Jacques Monod Institute, Paris, France, Marie-Anne Felix' lab
• 2008 : Post-doctoral fellow, Centre d'Immunologie Marseille-Luminy, Marseille, France, Jonathan Ewbank's lab
• Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg), Berlin, 2012
• ATIP CNRS, 2008
Jan 2013, BMC Evolutionary Biology
A phylogeny and molecular barcodes for Caenorhabditis, with numerous new species from rotting fruits
Nov 2011, BMC Evolutionary Biology
Bias and evolution of the mutationally accessible phenotypic space in a developmental system
Mar 2010, PLoS Genetics
Plasticity and errors of a robust developmental system in different environments
Nov 2008, Developmental Cell