Dr Nathalie Rouach 

Nathalie Rouach is a neurobiologist developing research on the role of glial cells in brain physiology and pathologies. She is a First Class Director of Research at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and heads the laboratory « Neuroglial Interactions in Cerebral Physiology and Pathologies » within the Interdisciplinary Center for Research in Biology at the College de France in Paris. She obtained in 2002 a Ph.D. in Neurosciences, performed jointly at University Pierre and Marie Curie and the Weizmann Institute, where she studied neuroglial interactions. She then did a postdoc on synaptic physiology in the laboratory of Roger Nicoll at University of California San Francisco. Research in her laboratory aims at determining whether and how astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell type of the brain, play a direct role in information processing. In particular, her team explores the molecular modalities and functional consequences of neuron-glia interactions in various physiological and pathological contexts, such as memory, social interactions, epilepsy or intellectual disability, with ex vivo and in vivo studies of neuronal excitability, synaptic transmission and plasticity, synchronization of neuronal networks, and cognitive functions in mouse models and human tissues. She is a member of several scientific councils and has received several awards including the Human Frontier Career Development award, Silver Medal of the City of Paris, ERC Consolidator and Proof of Concept grants. She authored more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

College de France