École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENSL)

The Institute of Functional Genomics of Lyon (IGFL) is a research unit of ENSL, a prestigious elite French public institution that trains professors, researchers, senior civil servants as well as business and political leaders. IGFL is supported by CNRS, the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and the National Institute for Agronomical Research (INRA). It gathers more than 100 members organised into 15 independent groups from different backgrounds. The IGFL’s originality comes from bringing together embryologists, endocrinologists, specialists in bioinformatics, evolutionary scientists, palaeontologists, physiologists and genome specialists. It is the Functional Genomics of Thyroid Hormone Receptors Group that will be most involved in ERGO. The group have six permanent members and their research is dedicated to the understanding of thyroid hormone signalling in vivo, with a specific interest in the mammalian brain. The group received international recognition for its genetic investigation of the neurodevelopmental function of the nuclear receptors of thyroid hormone, which heavily relies on expertise in transgenic mice technology, developed on an in-house platform. It continues to address basic questions on the mechanisms underlying the neurodevelopmental function of thyroid hormone. The group has also been a pioneer in toxicogenomics, applying advanced genomic technology to the field of thyroid hormone disruptors. It has been repeatedly funded by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) to develop innovative tools to study endocrine disruptors.

Frédéric is the leader of the Functional Genomics of Thyroid Hormone Receptors Group and Deputy Director of IGFL. He received a PhD in Lyon in 1986, left for a post-doctoral fellowship in San-Diego USA and then became a staff scientist for INRA. After a career as a virologist, in 1998 he switched to endocrinology and developmental biology. He established an independent thyroid hormone signalling group in 2007 and promoted the use of mouse genetics to establish the complex mechanisms taking place at molecular and cellular level during neurodevelopment. He has been a member of the CASCADE European Network of Excellence (2004-2009) on endocrine disruptors and then of the CRESCENDO Integrated Program (2007-2010). As a group leader, he trained four PhD students and published 54 articles in international level journals. Frédéric is also Scientific Director of the internal platform for next-generation DNA sequencing and the Associate Editor in two journals: Endocrinology and Frontiers in Endocrinology. Frédéric will coordinate WP6 and participate in all other WPs and to all omics projects. He will be in charge of the bioinformatics work within the project and the coordination with the in-house platform for deep DNA sequencing.

Sabine is a neuroscientist who joined the Functional Genomics of Thyroid Hormone Receptors Group in 2008. She has expertise in brain histology, behaviour analysis and imaging. She is an INRA employee and co-authored seven articles since she joined the group. She is a member of the local ethical committee for animal experimentation and is committed at the national level to follow the evolution of regulation. Sabine will carry out the in vivo exposure experiments, contribute to omics analysis and organise mouse breeding in WP6.

Suzy is an experienced technician, with great expertise in mouse genetics and phenotyping. Her exceptional autonomy explains why she recently was awarded first and last authorship in two articles. She is an active member of national and international networks for mouse genetics (CELPHEDIA, ISTT). Suzy will perform omics analysis both in cell cultures and in mice in WP6.

Denise is an experienced engineer, with extensive knowledge of mouse genetics, development and gene expression analysis. Denise will participate in all animal experimentations (breeding, exposure, dissection, tissue analysis) in both WP5 and WP6.