Johnny Bou-Rouphael, Shaping Life 2, Online Conference, 7-9 April 2021

Shaping Life 2

→ Boarding Pass

PhD Student at IBPS, Paris

I am grateful for the opportunity the SFBD gave me to attend its second edition of Shaping Life which was very interesting. Overall, it covered a great diversity of topics in the scientific field, including stem cell and organoids, mechanics and self-organization, environmental impact on development, neuro-development, developmental pathologies, evo-devo and emerging models.

Despite the pandemic that has squashed plans for face-to-face socializing, the virtual plateforms « Gather Town » and « Zoom » allowed the exchange of ideas and knowledge among researchers from several scientific sectors internationally.

Most of the talks were insightful and thought provoking, especially the ones related to stem cells, organoids and neuro-development were particularly interesting to me. If I have to choose, I may have a slight preference for the talk given by Pr. Paola Arlotta from Harvard University, entitled «Understanding human brain development: From embryos to organoids », which focuses on the induction of one of the most complex tissues – the brain – in a dish. This ambitious and challenging project could be extremely powerful to understand human brain disorders.

As a second year PhD student, I had the opportunity to present my work during the poster session which allowed me to exchange ideas and get feedback from peers.

Thanks again to the French Society of Developmental Biology and the Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille for organizing this great meeting.

→ Johnny presented a poster entitled: “Xenopus appears as a relevant model to study Cerebellar Granular Neurons normal and defective development”