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Cécile Charrier

Development and plasticity of synapses

We are hiring !
ERC-funded postdoctoral position, starting early 2022.

Synapses are multimolecular nanomachines that ensure the proper connectivity of neuronal circuits, integrate diverse inputs into biochemical reactions and allow adaptive responses to the environment. Small changes in the molecular organization of synapses can lead to profound modifications of behavioral and cognitive abilities, as frequently observed in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Small changes also appeared during human evolution. Although poorly characterized, they underlie the distinctive developmental and physiological properties of human synapses and are at the core of what makes us humans.

We are investigating the role of molecular pathways linked to human evolution in the development and plasticity of synaptic connections in the neocortex. Our goal is to elucidate fundamental principles that are common to all mammals, and uncover regulations that are specific to humans. We employ a multidisciplinary approach in mouse and human models based on sparse in vivo manipulations in intact cortical circuits, proteomics, electrophysiology, as well as confocal, super-resolutive, and correlative microscopy.

Selected articles

Gemin O, Serna P, Zamith J, Assendorp N, Fossati M, Rostaing P, Triller A and Charrier C, Unique properties of dually innervated dendritic spines in pyramidal neurons of the somatosensory cortex uncovered by 3D correlative light and electron microscopy (2021) Plos Biology, 19(8) : e3001375.

Fossati M, Charrier C, Trans-synaptic interactions of ionotropic glutamate receptors (2020) Curr Opin Neurobiol, 66:85-92.

Fossati M, Assendorp N, Gemin O, Colasse S, Dingli F, Arras G, Loew D and Charrier C, Tans-synaptic signaling via the glutamate receptor delta-1 mediates inhibitory synapse formation in cortical pyramidal neurons (2019) Neuron, 104(6):1081-1094.e7.

Maffei A, Charrier C, Caiati M, Barberis A, Mahadevan V, Woodin M and Tyagarajan SK, 
Emerging mechanisms underlying dynamics of GABAergic synapses (2017) J Neurosci. 37(45) : 10792–10799.

Fossati M, Pizzarelli R, Schmidt ER, Kupferman JV, Stroebel D, Polleux F, Charrier C, SRGAP2 and its human-specific paralog co-regulate the development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses (2016) Neuron, 91(2):356-69.

Charrier C and Polleux F, How human-specific SRGAP2 gene duplications control human brain development (2012) Médecine/Sciences, 28(11):911-4.

Charrier C, Joshi K, Coutinho-Budd J, Kim JE, Lambert N, de Marchena J, Jin WL, Vanderhaeghen P, Ghosh A, Sassa T and Polleux F, Inhibition of SRGAP2 by its human-specific paralogs induces neoteny during spine maturation (2012) Cell, 149(4):923-35.