Elise Marsan, PhD

I am a postdoctoral researcher in cellular and molecular neurobiology with a deep interest in neurological diseases. During my master and PhD studies, I worked on the genetics and pathophysiology of pharmaco-resistant pediatric epilepsies. Using whole exome sequencing as well as laser-capture and digital droplet PCR, I contributed to identifying new mutations in patients' blood and post-operative brain resections. In the meantime, I characterized a rat model of the disease at the behavioral and histological levels, and highlighted the mTOR pathway upregulation as a key mechanism in the pathology. I validated these results using patients' post-operative brain tissue, fibroblasts and lymphoblasts. As a postdoctoral fellow, I decided to extend my research interest centered on neurons and neurodevelopment to the field of immune cells and neurodegeneration. Considering the specificities of human brain cells, I am especially keen on using human samples to unravel the molecular etiologies of brain pathologies. Therefore, I am currently using single cell RNAseq technology on postmortem brain tissue from patients with neurodegenerative diseases to understand the contribution of the glial cells in the process of neuronal loss.