Brigitte Galliot (Biology)
Brigitte Galliot |
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Shortly after gaining an MD in embryology and pediatrics in Paris and Strasbourg, Brigitte Galliot decided to switch to molecular and cell biology during her doctoral studies in Professor Pierre Chambon's laboratory in Strasbourg. From France, she moved to a two-year postdoctoral position with Professor Chica Schaller at the Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie Heidelberg (ZMBH), Germany, where she first established her own group. For the last fifteen years, Brigitte has been working in Geneva at the Faculty of Sciences.
As a scientist active in the field of developmental biology for the last twenty years, Brigitte's focus for the last fifteen years has been on two overlapping themes: the analysis of cell plasticity during regeneration and the genetic control of neurogenesis. To tackle these questions, she uses the hydra model system - an animal that has a simple organisation but displays amazing cell and developmental plasticities and expresses genes that are highly conserved. Being trained both as a physician and a scientist, Brigitte can appreciate the medical consequences of major scientific breakthroughs which increase our knowledge of basic mechanisms in biology.
In recent years, her lab has developed an efficient functional approach to silence gene expression through RNA interference, and they have applied specific genetic tools to a model system refractory to classical genetic approaches. Their first genetic knock-down, published in 2006, performed on a highly conserved gene, surprisingly showed that similar cellular alterations typical of autophagy can be observed in hydra gland cells and the mammalian exocrine pancreas. This highlights the conservation of the amputation stress response during evolution. Therefore, the hydra is a potent model to trace molecular mechanisms underlying the behaviour of cell tissues in homeostasis, development and pathological conditions, and to investigate the genetic cascades driving the reactivation of developmental programmes, whatever the age of the animal. For future work, Brigitte wishes to identify, through a systematic approach, the basic core processes underlying cell and developmental plasticity in hydra, i.e. the regenerative memory.
In 2002, together with a group of European and American scientists active in the field of regeneration, Brigitte launched the EURESCO / EMBO Conference Series on the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Regeneration and Tissue Repair. The last conference took place in Ascona (Switzerland) in September 2006. It attracted top international scientists who use a large variety of model systems with great success. These conferences are now recognised as the major event for scientists interested in the mechanisms underlying cell and developmental plasticity. She also organised, with Swiss scientists, the Swiss Stem Cell Network to promote fruitful collaborations through regular scientific interactions. Brigitte is currently the chair of the network. Working with an emerging model system, she is fully convinced of (and dependent on) the value of highly interactive scientific exchanges.
Following her line of research, for the last ten years, Brigitte has taught evolution and development as well as cell and developmental biology at the Faculty of Sciences in Geneva, at the bachelor and master levels. As an expert in the field of evolution and development, she is regularly invited to participate in master teaching courses in Europe. Moreover, over the past few years, she has had the chance to organise several scientific events for a general audience and to communicate her passion of science to non-scientists. Brigitte feels that beside their research projects, scientists should spend time and effort to promote the values of science, not only to the citizens that support their research, but also to the next generations.
Brigitte Galliot has published over 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, encyclopedia, proceedings and books. She has also had a hand in the production of four movies about the biology of regeneration and she has written two papers about women in science (in French).
Finally, at the private level, Brigitte is mother of four children and her husband, who has always supported her scientific activities by sharing the family duties, is a very active scientist.