For my PhD, I chose to decipher how lipids might affect the emotional aspect of dietary intake. Throughout this endeavour, I was resident at Dr. Serge Luquet laboratory (Paris7 Denis Diderot University, France), where I spent 5 years to complete my Masters 2 and a further 4 years to complete my PhD (2008-2013). During this time, I demonstrated that nutritional lipids are detected by the brain and are involved in the central regulation of energy balance through modulating the rewarding aspect of dietary intake and locomotor activity. I have received a research grant for this project from the “Société Francophone du Diabète –Roche ” in 2012 and my PhD work led to a publication in Molecular psychiatry (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24732670).
At the end of my PhD I chose to go abroad for 2 years to continue with my work on the central regulation of energy balance, focusing more on neuroscientific aspects and how neuro circuitry interacts together to control dietary intake and food choices. Thus, I joined the laboratory of Pr. Lora Heisler in Scotland (Aberdeen University, UK). In carrying out my research, I used the pharmacogenetic technic and retrograde virus tracer in order to decipher serotonin system architecture by characterizing which cerebral region is connected to this system and might be involved in energy balance regulation in response to nutrients quality. I was involved in different studies which lead to 3 publications in particular in Cell Metabolism (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30146485; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27133129).
After this 1st post-doctorate I decided to continue with my work in neurophysiology and so I contacted Dr. Jean-Louis Nahon (Nice Sophia Antipolis University, France). Over a period of 3 years (2015-2018), working in his lab, I have been developing a project deciphering how nutritional lipids could affect neuroglial remodelling in brain networks involved in dietary intake regulation. I have received a research grant for this project from the “Fondation Nestlé France” in 2016 and my work led to 2 publications in Cell Report and bioRxiv (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32130907; https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/835967v1).
After this 2nd post-doctorate, I decided to train myself to a new and faster study model that offers many genetic tools, the drosophila. To this end, I joined Dr. Michael Rera laboratory (CRI, Paris, France). His research focused on developing a novel two-phase of ageing framework for studying ageing based on the Smurf phenotype. Over a period of 1.5 years (2018-2020), working in his lab and continuing up until the present, I am developing a project that aims to transfer the two-phase model of ageing from drosophila to mammals and to link energy metabolism, dietary intake and aging, in particular through the use of a tool, unique in the world, to measure the metabolism of an individual fly.
Contemporary dance - Photography - Hiking - Cooking
