About

I am a physicist working at the interface of biophysics, cell biology and quantitative imaging. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in Peter Swain’s lab at the University of Edinburgh, and a tenured research engineer at CNRS, France.

One question runs through my work: how do biological systems physically adapt to critical events — severe stress, injury, resource deprivation? After a PhD in physics at Institut Curie (lab of Jacques Prost), I spent twelve years at Institut Curie’s imaging facility developing quantitative fluorescence methods (two-photon FRAP, FLIM/FRET, light-sheet and intravital imaging) and applying them with dozens of cell-biology teams. In Edinburgh, I first studied brain repair in zebrafish, showing that microglia close wounds by exerting mechanical forces, and now study how yeast cells sense and respond to stress.

I combine advanced microscopy, microfluidics and theory — stochastic models, coupled PDE–ODE systems and physics-informed neural networks — to turn images into physical measurements.

Outside the lab I enjoy 3D printing, music and kung-fu.

Download CV (PDF)

Positions

  1. 2022 – present
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow Lab of Prof. Peter S. Swain, University of Edinburgh

    Physics of the cellular stress response in budding yeast: chemoreception in transient environments, protein condensation (LLPS) under stress, physics-informed deep learning for intracellular density mapping.

  2. 2018 – 2022
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow Lab of Profs. Catherina & Thomas Becker, University of Edinburgh

    Biophysics of CNS repair after injury in zebrafish larvae. Showed that microglia exert local mechanical forces essential for brain wound closure.

  3. 2006 – 2018
    Research Engineer, CNRS (UMR144) Cell and Tissue Imaging Facility (PICT-IBiSA), Institut Curie, Paris

    Design and scientific exploitation of advanced fluorescence microscopy: FLIM/FRET, FRAP, two-photon, intravital and light-sheet imaging. Co-applicant on four national grants (> €3M).

  4. 2003 – 2006
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow J. Salamero (Institut Curie) & L. Héliot (Institut de Biologie de Lille)

    Rab protein interactions in living cells by two-photon FRET/FLIM.

Education

  1. 1998 – 2002
    PhD in Physics Lab of Prof. Jacques Prost, Institut Curie, Paris

    Dynamics of brush-border cytoskeletal proteins revealed by two-photon FRAP. Supervisors: F. Amblard & E. Coudrier.

  2. 1994 – 1997
    MRes in Physics Université Paris XI (Paris-Saclay), Orsay

    Including a research internship at INFN Pisa on the VIRGO gravitational-wave detector (1996).

Awards & funding

  1. 2021
    1st prize, best oral presentation 6th SBPRC meeting
  2. 2021
    Moray Endowment Fund (PI) — £1,998 University of Edinburgh

    Genetic tools for in vivo analysis of force generation by microglia during brain repair.

  3. 2020
    Wellcome Trust iTPA Translational Innovation Prize (PI) — £1,000 University of Edinburgh

    Observation chamber for long-term in vivo imaging on upright microscopes.

  4. 2001 – 2002
    PhD fellowship Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer (ARC)
  5. 2007 – 2015
    Co-applicant on national grants (> €3M in total) FRM (€310k), Labex CelTisPhyBio (€128k), DIM Cancer Île-de-France CanNoLi (€2M), ANR NPC Plastic (€627k)

Instrument & method development

  1. 2024 – 2026
    Physics-informed neural network for quantitative phase imaging from single-plane brightfield microscopy
  2. 2024
    Multi-chamber microfluidic device for parallel imaging of 20 yeast strains under controlled stress
  3. 2021
    Semi-automated laser-lesion protocol, adopted by the UK Zebrafish Screening Facility
  4. 2020
    Observation chamber for long-term in vivo imaging on upright microscopes
  5. 2019
    Arduino-based visual stimulation system for zebrafish larvae
  6. 2006 – 2018
    FLIM/FRET/FRAP platforms at Institut Curie: hardware, acquisition software and analysis pipelines

Supervision & teaching

  1. 2010 – 2014
    PhD co-supervision — Philippe Roudot with C. Kervrann, INRIA. Bayesian methods for fluorescence microscopy image analysis.
  2. 2001 – 2021
    12 MSc and undergraduate students supervised Institut Curie and University of Edinburgh
  3. 2004 – 2018
    Lectures and practical courses in quantitative microscopy ESPCI, ENSEA, CNRS Formation, Institut Curie, MiFoBio summer schools

Service

  1. 2017 – 2025
    Health & Biology peer-review committee (PRC5) SOLEIL French national synchrotron
  2. 2007 – 2013
    Steering committee French national network for optical microscopy in biology (RTmfm)
  3. 2010 – 2014
    Thesis committees, jury & grant evaluation INRA Rennes, AgroSup Dijon, Région Aquitaine, Université Lille 1
  4. Reviewer
    J. R. Soc. Interface, Biophysical Journal, J. Dairy Science, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Signal Process.

Skills

Experimental
Confocal, two-photon, TIRF and light-sheet microscopy; FLIM/FRET/FRAP; quantitative phase imaging; microfluidics; live-cell and intravital imaging; zebrafish, yeast and mammalian cells; microsurgery.
Computational
ODE/PDE and stochastic modelling; image analysis; physics-informed deep learning; fluorescence-lifetime analysis; particle tracking.
Programming
Python (NumPy, SciPy, PyTorch), MATLAB, C/C++, C#, Java, ImageJ macro.
Languages
French (native), English (fluent), Italian (intermediate).