member

Biography

• Anh Do Thi obtained a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Bordeaux II studying the morphological modifications of the sciatic nerve and the alterations of ethanolamine glycerophospholipid turnover in Trembler dysmyelinating mutant mice. She also achieved the immortalization of rat Schwann cells using a temperature sensitive oncogene driven by a gliotropic promoter (pJCSVLTtsA) and investigated the effects of these cells seeded in a guidance channel on sciatic nerve repair after nerve injury. She was also interested in the effects of steroids, namely progesterone, on myelin formation in the peripheral nervous system.
• Thereafter, she investigated the protection of dopaminergic neurons by adenoviral vectors expressing GDNF as therapeutic transgene, after deletion of E1, E3/E4 regions of the Ad5 and in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease. She also developed a gene transfer strategy to promote axonal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. This strategy is based on the suppression of the glial scar by lentiviral-mediated RNAi (Lv-shGFAP) and simultaneously on the stimulation of axon re-growth by neurotrophic factor GDNF released from transduced Schwann cells grafted at the lesion site.
• Following our laboratory integration in the ICM (Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière) she is involved in several projects developing new animal models for validating new therapeutic targets for neuronal pathologies by gene transfer techniques using siRNA expressing lentiviral vectors. To this end she has, in collaboration with IRME, optimized the molecular tools and the experimental surgery for a preclinical study on glial scar inhibition in a pig model of spinal injury. She has also worked on the characterization of Gpr88, a G Protein-coupled orphan receptor, in a murine model of schizophrenia. Presently she is studying the implication of Gpr88 in the motor symptoms and the L-DOPA induced dyskinesia in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease.