Cécile Charrier facts for kids

Cécile Charrier (born in 1983) is a French neuroscientist. She works as a research fellow at Inserm, which is France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research. Her work takes place at the Institute of Biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. In 2021, she received a special award called the Irène Joliot-Curie "Young Female Scientist of the Year" for her important research.

Cécile Charrier's Journey in Science

Cécile Charrier knew from high school that she wanted to study the brain. She earned her master's degree in neuroscience. In 2009, she completed her PhD in neuroscience at the Pierre and Marie Curie University. This university later became part of Sorbonne University in 2018.

Early Research and Discoveries

After her PhD, Cécile Charrier worked as a postdoctoral researcher in different places. She worked at Inserm, then at the University of North Carolina, and finally at the Scripps Research Institute in California. During this time, she studied a gene called SRGAP2C. This gene appeared around 2.4 million years ago, when early human ancestors like Australopithecus and Homo began to develop differently.

Her research showed that this gene is very important for how human brain connections, called synapses, develop. This discovery was a big step in her career. It helped her decide what to focus on next.

Leading Her Own Research Team

In 2013, Cécile Charrier returned to Inserm as a full-time researcher. Since 2014, she has been working with a research group at the Biology Institute of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS). There, she leads her own team of scientists. They are all working together to understand more about the brain.

Awards and Recognition

In 2021, the French Academy of Sciences honored Cécile Charrier with the Irène Joliot-Curie Young Female Scientist of the Year award. This award recognized her important contributions to science.

Why Her Work is Important

The award recognized her research on how synapses develop and change. Synapses are the tiny connections between brain cells that allow them to communicate. Her work also looks at how these processes might be unique in humans.

She also helped develop new technology. This includes a special 3D microscopy technique. It allows scientists to see and measure the tiny details of different types of synapses.

Cécile Charrier is also a strong supporter of encouraging more women to work in biology and scientific research.

List of Awards

• 2021: Irène Joliot-Curie "Young Female Scientist of the Year" award

Selected Publications

Cécile Charrier has published many scientific papers. These papers share her research findings with other scientists around the world. Here are some examples of her work:

• Charrier, C., Ehrensperger, M. V., Dahan, M., Lévi, S., & Triller, A. (2006). Cytoskeleton regulation of glycine receptor number at synapses and diffusion in the plasma membrane. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(33), 8502–8511.
• Charrier, C., Machado, P., Tweedie-Cullen, R. Y., Rutishauser, D., Mansuy, I. M., & Triller, A. (2010). A crosstalk between β1 and β3 integrins controls glycine receptor and gephyrin trafficking at synapses. Nature neuroscience, 13(11), 1388–1395.
• Charrier, C., Joshi, K., Coutinho-Budd, J., Kim, J. E., Lambert, N., De Marchena, J., ... & Polleux, F. (2012). Inhibition of SRGAP2 function by its human-specific paralogs induces neoteny during spine maturation. Cell, 149(4), 923–935.
• Fossati, M., Pizzarelli, R., Schmidt, E. R., Kupferman, J. V., Stroebel, D., Polleux, F., & Charrier, C. (2016). SRGAP2 and its human-specific paralog co-regulate the development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses. Neuron, 91(2), 356–369.