EDUCATION:

• M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology Université Louis Pasteur
• Ph.D. in Biochemistry at University of Sussex
• Postdoctoral Fellow. University of California, San Francisco

RESEARCH INTEREST:

• My laboratory is using the powerful tools of Drosophila genetics to answer basic questions regarding synapse function and development.

  The molecular control of Synaptic Growth The synapse of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is composed of a series of varicosities (the synaptic boutons) that contain the presynaptic machinery and oppose the muscle cell. My laboratory works on understanding the signaling mechanisms that generate presynaptic boutons and that control the growth of the synapse.

  I previously characterized mutants of the synaptic multiadaptor protein Dap160, the ortholog of the mammalian Intersectin. I showed that this molecule scaffolds the endocytic machinery at the synapse and also regulates synaptic growth. The data I collected lead me to present a model in which the scaffolding protein Dap160 coordinates, within the periactive zone, synaptic signaling systems necessary for synaptic growth and is also responsible for efficient vesicle recycling at the NMJ (Marie et al, Neuron 2004). I have also carried out a genetic screen that links Dap160 to the regulation of cytoskeleton dynamics. My lab is now characterizing molecules regulating cytoskeleton dynamics at the synapse.

PUBLICATIONS: