Thesis Prize SFBD 2021: Dr. Alexandre Chuyen

First prize:
→ Invitation to give a plenary lecture at Shaping Life2 meeting from 7th to 9th April 2021.

→ Prize of €1000

In 2021, the SFBD thesis prize was awarded to Dr. Alexandre Chuyen for his thesis entitled: “Molecular and cellular basis of pattern establishment in a vertebrate epithelium”. This work was published in the journal Developmental Cell. Alexandre Chuyen did her thesis under the supervision of Dr. Dr. Andrea Pasini, in the laboratoire “Biology of ciliated epithelia” directed by Laurent Kodjabachian at the IBMD, Marseille, France.

The work of the winner:

Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach, combining in vivo imaging, mathematical modelling and functional perturbations, Alexandre was able to elucidate the mechanisms that control the surprisingly regular distribution of multiciliated cells in the epidermis of the amphibian Xenopus laevis. Such a distribution is the result of a self-organisation process that depends on two simple phenomena: the mutual repulsion between immature multiciliated cells, and their affinity for the junctions between the cells of the epidermis, among which they will insert. Surprisingly, these two apparently opposite phenomena are both controlled by the same signalling pathway, dependent on the receptor tyrosine-kinase KIT. Indeed, its interaction with a soluble form of the ligand SCF promotes the repulsive response, while the interaction with a transmembrane form of SCF stimulates adhesion to intercellular junctions. 

The jury considered that this work and the resulting publication shed new and highly original light on the patterning mechanisms at the tissue level, and also wanted to reward the clarity and accessibility of the thesis manuscript.