Claire WYART
PhD, DR2, INSERM
Team “Sensory Spinal Signaling ”
http://wyartlab.org/
https://twitter.com/ClaireWyart
Biography
Claire Wyart graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm in 2000. Under the supervision of Dr. Laurent Bourdieu and Dr. Didier Chatenay, she completed her PhD in biophysics and neuroscience at the University of Strasbourg and then joined the University of California at Berkeley for her postdoc. In the laboratory of Professor Ehud Isacoff, she developed optical techniques to control the activity of neurons at a distance in vivo (optogenetics). Claire Wyart's team now combines genetics, biophysics, physiology and behavior to understand how sensory inputs are integrated into the spinal cord during development and active locomotion. His lab has discovered that neurons in contact with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the spinal cord are mechanoreceptors that sense spinal cord curvature and CSF flow, which modulate the activity of spinal neurons controlling locomotion and posture. We use the transparent zebrafish larva to implement optical methods to manipulate and monitor moving neuronal activity. Our work aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which interoceptive sensory inputs are integrated throughout life to form the spinal cord, and provide homeostasis in mature stages.Research work
Our team studies how information flows through motor control circuits to optimize navigation, postural control and adaptation of locomotion to the animal's internal states. On the one hand, we take advantage of the transparency and genetic accessibility of zebrafish at early stages of development to elucidate motor control mechanisms. On the other hand, we verify that the circuits we have identified in this small vertebrate animal model are conserved in mammals, and in particular in humans. Interests: motor control; navigation; internal physiological states; interoception; sensory feedback.Publications
1- Reddy, G#, Desban, L, Tanaka, H, Roussel, J, Mirat, O, WYART, C#. A lexical approach for identifying behavioral action sequences. Plos Computational Biology, in revision. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.27.270694.
2- Wu, MY*, Carbo-Tano, M*, Mirat, O, Lejeune, FX, Roussel, J, Quan, F, Fidelin, K, WYART, C# Spinal sensory neurons project onto hindbrain to stabilize posture and enhance locomotor speed. Current Biology, in press.
3- Oldfield, CS, Grossrubatscher, I, Chávez, M, Hoagland, A, Huth, AR, Carroll, EC, Prendergast, AE, Qu, T, Gallant, TL, WYART, C, Isacoff, EY (2020). Experience, circuit dynamics, and forebrain recruitment in larval zebrafish prey capture. eLife 9: e56619.
4- Antinucci*, P, Dumitrescu*, AS, Deleuze, C, Morley, HJ, Leung, K, Hagley, T, Kubo, F, Baier, H, Bianco, IH#, WYART, C# (2020). A calibrated optogenetic toolbox of stable zebrafish opsin lines, eLife 9:e54937. doi: 10.7554/eLife.54937
5- Orts-Del’Immagine, A, Cantaut-Belarif, Y,*, Thouvenin, O, Roussel, J, Baskaran, A, Langui, D, Koeth, F, Bivas, P, Lejeune, FX, Bardet, PL, WYART C# [2020]. Sensory neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid require the Reissner fiber to detect spinal curvature in vivo. Current Biology 30:827-839.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.071.