Claire Wyart graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm in 2000. Under the direction of Drs. Laurent Bourdieu and Didier Chatenay, she obtained her doctorate in biophysics and neurosciences at the University of Strasbourg and went to the University of California at Berkeley for her postdoc. In the laboratory of Professor Ehud Isacoff, she has developed optical techniques to control the activity of neurons at a distance in vivo (optogenetics).
Claire Wyart's team is now combining genetics, biophysics, physiology and behaviour to understand how sensory inputs are integrated into the spinal cord during development and active locomotion. His laboratory has discovered that neurons in contact with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the spinal cord are mechanoreceptors that detect spinal cord curvature and CSF flux, which modulate the activity of spinal neurons controlling locomotion and posture. We use the transparent larva of zebrafish to implement optical methods to manipulate and monitor neuronal activity in motion. Our work aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which interoceptive sensory inputs are integrated throughout life to form the spinal cord, and to ensure homeostasis in mature stages.
Research
Our team is studying how information flows through motor control circuits to optimize navigation, postural control, and the adaptation of locomotion to the animal's internal states. On the one hand, we take advantage of the transparency and genetic accessibility of zebrafish in the early stages of development to elucidate motor control mechanisms. On the other hand, we verify that the circuits we have identified in this small vertebrate animal model are conserved in mammals, and in particular in humans.
Centres of interest: motor control; navigation; internal physiological states; interoception; sensory feedback.
Main publications
- Reddy, G#, Desban, L, Tanaka, H, Roussel, J, Mirat, O, WYART, C#. A lexical approach for identifying behavioral action sequences. Plos Computational Biology, in revision. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.27.270694.
- Wu, MY*, Carbo-Tano, M*, Mirat, O, Lejeune, FX, Roussel, J, Quan, F, Fidelin, K, WYART, C# Spinal sensory neurons project onto hindbrain to stabilize posture and enhance locomotor speed. Current Biology, in press.
- Oldfield, CS, Grossrubatscher, I, Chávez, M, Hoagland, A, Huth, AR, Carroll, EC, Prendergast, AE, Qu, T, Gallant, TL, WYART, C, Isacoff, EY (2020). Experience, circuit dynamics, and forebrain recruitment in larval zebrafish prey capture. eLife 9: e56619.
- Antinucci*, P, Dumitrescu*, AS, Deleuze, C, Morley, HJ, Leung, K, Hagley, T, Kubo, F, Baier, H, Bianco, IH#, WYART, C# (2020). A calibrated optogenetic toolbox of stable zebrafish opsin lines, eLife 9:e54937. doi: 10.7554/eLife.54937
- Orts-Del’Immagine, A, Cantaut-Belarif, Y,*, Thouvenin, O, Roussel, J, Baskaran, A, Langui, D, Koeth, F, Bivas, P, Lejeune, FX, Bardet, PL, WYART C# [2020]. Sensory neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid require the Reissner fiber to detect spinal curvature in vivo. Current Biology 30:827-839.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.071.