The Neuroscience Societies European Federation and the Kavli Foundation have just appointed Claire Wyart, team leader at the Institut du Cerveau – ICM, ” FENS-Kavli Scholars 2016 “. This award aims to reward young researchers for their scientific excellence, the originality of their research and the promises they convey for the future.
The mission of the “the FENS-Kavli Scholars” is to promote scientific breakthroughs in the field of neuroscience by providing means to young investigators to achieve ambitious projects. This network of excellence gathering the best European neuro-scientists aims to strengthen the interactions and interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers from all over Europe.
Claire Wyart’s team works on locomotion and the way sensory circuits in the spinal cord modulate movement and posture. Her preferred model is the zebrafish, a small transparent fish in the early stages of development, for which she has developed optical methods to control in vivo neuronal activity. Through this advanced technology, she could identify a new sensorimotor loop in the spinal cord which affects locomotion and posture. These results raise hopes that one day, we will be able to stimulate precisely these circuits to modulate posture and movement in human.