The mammalian cerebral cortex plays key roles in learning and memory, the control of sensory and motor functions or of our emotions. The proper execution of these tasks depends on a long process of embryonic and postnatal development which relies on the production by neural stem cells of the appropriate number of neurons with proper identities that migrate to their specific location and make connections with each other. Defective signaling pathways during development are the causes of human brain diseases such as lissencephalies and heterotopias, dyslexia, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy and many others. The goal of our laboratory, created in October 2012, is to better define the mechanisms of neural cell proliferation, migration and differentiation in order to understand how the cerebral cortex is built and learn how to treat these devastating brain diseases.

The current projects are:

1. Mechanism of action of N-Cadherin under the reelin pathway.
2. Mechanisms regulating embryonic neural stem cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation.