Garel_photo

Sonia Garel

Current position

Professor at the Collège de France, Chair of Neurobiology and Immunity

Host institution

Ecole Normale Supérieure Biology Institute, Inserm U204, CNRS UMR8197, PSL Université

garel@biologie.ens.fr

Brain wiring and neuroimmune interactions
Sonia Garel and her team work to figure out the mechanisms that regulate the assembly of neural circuits during embryogenesis and after birth, with a particular focus on interactions with the brain’s immune cells called microglia. They examine how development programs and microglia coordinate the assembly of millions of neurons under normal conditions as well as in the context of prenatal inflammation, which is a risk factor for neurodevelopmental diseases (e. g. autism or schizophrenia). They use the mouse as a study model to understand the logic of brain morphogenesis, but also to set up a framework to better understand the etiology of diseases.


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Training

- 1999: PhD, Department of Biology, Ecole Normale Supérieure/UPMC (Paris, France). Patrick Charnay's team.

- 2001-2003: Postdoctoral fellow, UCSF, San Francisco, USA. Dr. John Rubenstein's team.

- 2003: Appointed Research Officer (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France, Patrick Charnay's team).

- 2003: Appointed Research Officer (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France, Patrick Charnay's team).

- 2008: Appointed Team Leader, Institute of Biology of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

Awards

- 2020 Prize of the NRJ- Institut de France Foundation
- 2018 : Human Frontier Science Program Organization Award (HFSPO Career Development Award)
- 2018: EMBO Member
- 2014: Antoine Lacassagne Prize of the Collège de France
- 2012: Consolidator funding from the European Research Council (ERC)
- 2012: EMBO Young Researchers Award
- 2007: Young European Researchers Award (EURYI)
- 2007: Winner of the Inserm Avenir program