Naomi Berbée |
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Intrinsic mechanisms that drive axon guidance at the optic chiasm
In October 2023 I joined the research lab of Coralie Fassier & Xavier Nicol at the Institute de la Vision (Paris). Coralie is my main supervisor. Our lab focuses on two different topics. Firstly, on spatiotemporal codes of second messengers for the development of neuronal connectivity. Secondly Cytoskeleton remodelling in axonal growth cones. As you can guess from the title of my project, I am involved in the second theme of our lab.
Because of the international and joint-doctorate aspect of this program, I joined the lab of Amélie Fréal for the third year of my PhD. Amélie works at the Amsterdam Neuroscience department (within the Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms program, at the Amsterdam UMC) and the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research. I will use this time to dive into specific interactions that occur in the secretory pathway (yes, that is related to my project).
Personal Background and Interest
I have always been fascinated by how life can develop from a single cell into a whole functioning organism. Many factors play a role and almost 99% of the time it functions perfectly! Although I have a bachelor- and master degree in Biology from the Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, my main fascination was with marine- and developmental biology. Soon I realized that I did not like the ecology involved marine biology and I rather preferred to use marine animals to answer developmental questions. And this is how I ended up becoming good friends with zebrafish.
My internship at the Max Planck Institute for Genetics and Cell Biology really sparked my fascination for the role of molecular signals and genetics in developmental biology. In the lab of Rita Mateus, I investigated biophysical principles of vertebrate growth, together with the team. During my internship, I established a modular toolbox consisting of various fish lines that allowed the study of biophysical signals during zebrafish development and regeneration.
You might wonder, how did I end up at a neuroscience consortium related to Glaucoma… From a personal perspective, Glaucoma comes quite close to me as many people in my family have been diagnosed with it, including my own father. Knowing that this disease impacts every individual person and nerve differently, motivated me to
apply. From a scientific perspective this project spoke to me because of the use of different models, cool techniques regarding zebrafish and the different Omics approaches.
Aim of the project
My PhD project is focused on the intrinsic mechanisms that drive axon guidance at the optic chiasm. Specifically, I will investigate the role of Fignl1as a downstream effector but also a key regulator of the Slit/Robo guidance pathway required to guide RGC axons at the chiasm. I hope to uncover novel key players in visual circuit wiring that could represent relevant therapeutic targets to promote directed retinal axon (re)growth to (re)establish functional visual connectivity in pathological conditions such as advanced glaucoma.
Output (Publications and Awards)
- Tubulin glutamylation regulates axon guidance via the selective tuning of microtubule-severing enzymes, Click here to read the paper
Current activities/Accomplishments
Since my projects uses different models, I have been learning the techniques involved in cell culture of retinal explants and techniques related to zebrafish. Gaining confidence in this is going really well and I have been able to obtain some interesting data.