Could you please share with us a description of your academic training and current position?
I knew I wanted to do Biological Sciences, so I went to Université Paris 7, which is now called Université de Paris. The third year of my studies, I enrolled in a “Magistère de Génétique” (MA-level degree in Genetics). I chose this path because it was very orientated toward research work and you can do a lot of internships, especially abroad. So, after that, I took a “concours”* to have a grant for my PhD. I got it from the “Complexité du Vivant” (CDV) doctoral school. I did my PhD on genomic imprinting and muscle development during mouse embryogenesis in Institut Cochin with Luisa Dandolo where I had already done a six months internship during my second year of Master. Then, I was really lucky to have a posdoct offer to enter the laboratory of Edith Heard at Institut Curie. She was also working on an epigenetic mechanism, but this time it was with X chromosome activation. I was really fascinated about this idea of silencing a complete chromosome, and that happens extremely early during embryogenesis. During my postdoc, we set up challenging technologies, such as Single-Cell RNA-Seq in early embryos, and for that I went to Cambridge to learn the technology in the Gurdon Institute with Azim Surani. I spent four years and half of postdoc with Edith Heard at Institut Curie (2011-2015), and then I had this idea that I really wanted to go abroad again. So, I contacted Azim Surani to work on my project of X chromosome reactivation in the germline. He said yes and I got a grant to work with him in Cambridge University, in the UK, where I spent two and a half years. During 2017, I applied to the CNRS concours to come back to Institut Curie as a researcher with Edith Heard. So, it was mid 2018 when I came back and that was the time Edith knew she would take the Head of the EMBL and move to Heidelberg with a part of the lab. I was lucky to be able to stay at Institut Curie for 18 months where I helped closing the lab of Edith Heard. I had some projects with the laboratory of Déborah Bourc'his, that is specialized in genomic imprinting and early mammalian development but I also had this amazing opportunity to develop my own tools and my own questions. For example, I developed a specific female embryonic stem cell line l to study X chromosome reactivation in vitro. Also, during this time (2019-2020), I applied to set up my own team to work independently on my topics. I applied for different grants and I have been selected by FRM and ATIP-Avenir. So, I decided to move and set up my lab in Montpellier, in the Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier, the IGMM. Now the team is 10 months old (the team opened in Jan 2021), it's a lot of work, obviously, but it is really great to be able to work with the people you choose. We are working on X chromosome reactivation in the germline, also in the early embryos. We're using both in vivo and in vitro tools.
* a competitive examination
What did you learn at Institut Curie that helped you not only define your career path but also achieve your professional goals?
It was always clear coming back to Edith’s lab that it would also be to incubate and then have my own group. It's actually what I've done thanks to her because she really gave me a lot of independence when I came back from Cambridge. That was really amazing of her. So, clearly, what touched me the most is the fact that Edith trusted me to follow my research questions. I began to work on some of my projects in her lab. She gave me amazing tools to apply for my own grants, like my starting group leader grants. It has been extremely important for me. When I arrived in Montpellier, very quickly we had people joining. Rapidly, the team scale up to five people, which is a lot for the first year. What is really nice is that the lab is running. I think everybody found their place, we know where the projects are, and so now we have to make the science work. But having these two years / one year and a half at Institut Curie really helped me to set up all the bases for my lab. All the technology tools I would need, taking the time to write grants... Déborah Bourc'his mentored me a lot in terms of grant writing. She helped me a lot for the interviews. Institut Curie has also been very important because it offers what we clearly do not find anywhere else: a great support team (SPV) for grant writing. They have a scientific writer that helps group leaders write the grants. So, Institut Curie helped me a lot with writing my first grant. There are also people in the SPV team that remind you when the deadline of the grant is, when you should submit all papers… It removes a lot of administrative work from the shoulders of the researchers, and in that, Institut Curie is really amazing. From the different research Institutes I know, Institut Curie offered me the best support.
From your point of view, what differentiates Institut Curie from other research institutes?
I think Institut Curie gives a lot of support, for example, in scientific writing, training and provides access to the best equipments. They know how important it is. Institut Curie offers really amazing workshops. Actually, all the courses of Institut Curie are excellent, and we can join them as being part of the institute. There are a lot of great speakers that are invited on site and we can easily meet them. I also find that Institut Curie gives a lot of opportunities for teamwork. For example, the Ratatouille sessions. Actually, it came from one of Edith Heard’s PhD student who began that a few years ago. It's nice seeing the institute is listening to PhD fellows and postdocs and their needs. Each time I go back, I always see that it was a really great time and a really great place to work.
How would you describe your experience at Institut Curie? Is there any memorable experience you would like to share?
So, I have these two distinct experiences, one being a postdoc and the other one being a CNRS researcher. In both cases, I think what is striking with Institut Curie is the high quality of the research, of the infrastructures, the platforms... It really is a state-of-the-art workplace for the people that are there. It is nice to be able to focus on your research with everything that surrounds you at Institut Curie. I think you are really lucky when you work there for that reason. I also really like that there is an Institut Curie community. That’s how I felt it. I was in the BDD (Biologie du Dévelopement) building and I felt, for example, a community of the BDD. But it is very important to create networks and then to discuss and to exchange science and to make new collaborations. I think Institut Curie is a great place to have this kind of collaboration between the teams. Lots of teams are working together. And you see it better when you leave. Actually, each time you leave a place, you then realize what you had.
Do you have anything else you would like to add? Perhaps some advice to give to Curie’s PhD students and postdocs?
I think what you are doing right now, like trying to gather Alumni, is important. It's important to create this kind of spirit of coming from Institut Curie and being able just to have access to people who did the same as you or the same you think you want to do, to then have time maybe to have access to their email, discuss with them or this kind of thing. So, I think it's something really great to try to create. I also think that people should realize how lucky they are. I'm always joking, but some people do not realize how lucky we are in France, in Institut Curie, with everything we have and the great place we have to work, which is clearly also partly thanks to the donation Institut Curie is receiving. Maybe something else I've always done since my PhD is doing a lot of outreach activities. For several years, I welcomed some students from high school when I was at Institut Curie. We also welcomed schools of really young kids, like five years old, to show them what an institute is. These are things that people in Institut Curie do a lot. I think it's important to share what we have and I now apply what Institut Curie provided me within my own group in IGMM Montpellier.
Interview conducted by Ana Luisa Dian, PhD student at Institut Curie