Philippe RAVASSARD

Philippe Ravassard was trained at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan in biochemistry and obtained his doctorate in the laboratory of Jacques Mallet in the field of the biology of the development of the nervous system. He joined McGill University in Montreal 5Canada) for a post doc in the laboratory of Jean Pierre Julien. He received his clearance to conduct research in 2014.

He was the first to clone the Neurogenin 3 (ngn3) gene in rats. This transcription factor was found to be the key gene for endocrine differentiation in the pancreas. His work on ngn3 led him to study both pancreatic and nervous system differentiation. In the last 15 years he has made a significant contribution in the field of pancreatic development and in particular has developed the first and only human pancreatic β-cell line secreting insulin in response to glucose stimulation. This line has become the reference line for β-cell studies in both the academic and industrial world. He recently described the repertoire of long non-coding RNAs in human pancreatic β cells and obtained NIH funding to study their functions.

Following the integration of his group into Paris Brain Institute, the team drew on the knowledge and expertise gained in the field of pancreas and diabetes to study the function of non-coding genomic elements in Parkinson’s disease.

New generation sequencing, long non-coding RNA, chromatin regulation, cell differentiation.
Scientific coordinator of the PhenoParc and iVector platforms.