Finalist Thesis Prize SFBD 2021: Dr. Aurélien Villedieu
Finalist :
→ Prize of 300 €
In 2021, the SFBD has chosen Dr. Aurélien Villedieu as a co-finalist for the thesis prize for his thesis entitled “Epithelium folding and migration”. His work is subject of a review published in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development and a manuscript in preparation.
AurélienVilledieu did his thesis under the direction de Dr. Yohanns Bellaïche at the Institut Curie in Paris.
The work of the winner :
During his thesis, Aurélien focused on the complex morphogenetic processes involved in neck formation during metamorphosis in Drosophila, a little-studied phenomenon that relies on the macroscopic invagination of an epithelium. By combining confocal microscopy imaging, laser ablation and genetic approaches, Aurélien was able to show that such invagination results from a new mechanism involving, on the one hand, a process similar to cell cytokinesis on a very large scale and, on the other hand, collective migration on the apical side of the cells. Furthermore, he revealed that epithelial migration is controlled by the Wnt/Fz pathway and depends on the attachment of the tissue to the apical extracellular matrix. This work was summarised in a manuscript of exceptional quality, which the jury decided to reward with an accessit.
