After an organic chemistry assignment in high school, I got intrigued on how we “invent” medications for human health. You could say that I have been following this question ever since...

I was trained as a pharmacist with a PhD in pharmacology of natural products. Indeed, a great portion of the medicines we take are from plant origin, or are synthetic analogues of natural agents. During my PhD I aimed at isolating novel chemicals in the extracts of Valerian roots, used since ancient times for its sedative and anxiolytic properties. I isolated and identified two new neuroactive flavonoids, 2S-hesperidin and linarin, previously unknown to be present in this plant. My PhD studies were followed by a Post-Doctoral experience in Sydney, Australia. The discovery that benzodiazepines exert anxiety and unwanted sedative actions through different receptor subtypes prompted the search of novel molecules with higher selectivity as novel therapeutic leads for anxiety disorders. The project spanned from my previous results designing flavonoid-based novel chemical to find GABA-A receptor agonists with subtype selectivity. Developing new drugs based on novel neurobiological findings was a promising challenge, which inspired me much more than systematic and serendipitous testing of large chemical libraries. I discovered a novel series of modulating flavan-3-ol esters modulators with highly significant subtype selectivity for GABA-A receptor containing the α2 subunit. My early efforts in drug discovery were overtaken by the realization that not enough understanding of the patho-physiological mechanisms of mental illnesses was accomplished for hypothesis-based development of novel therapies. Hence, I decided my next step would be a project that allowed me to strengthen my knowledge in brain anatomy and physiology. In particular, I found fascinating the novel advances in circuit mapping and function, and how it could be applied to neuropsychiatry. My Post-Doctoral work with Dr Patricia Gaspar focused on elucidating how the heterogeneity of the 5-HT system may be linked to biological functions. Using state of the art circuit modulation techniques, single-cell molecular profiling and electrophysiology I contributing several publications parsing the organization of independent ascending serotoninergic pathways and their role in emotional responses and memory formation.

I am now a tenured researcher at the Institut de Pharmacologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (Valbonne), in the team of Physiopathology of Neuronal Circuits and Behavior (H. Marie & J. Barik), and my goal is to apply my experience in drug discovery, pharmacology and neurobiology to understand psychiatric disorders mechanisms, and to propose new approaches for their treatment. I focus on dissecting brain circuits involved in the detection and response to threatening or rewarding stimuli, and the cellular or synaptic adaptations that these circuits undergo when exposed to stress. My ultimate goal is to develop novel approaches to revert these cellular changes and alleviate aberrant behaviors, using both classic pharmacology and novel tools of circuit modulation.

Buenos Aires during PhD studies, circa 2006

sydney during post-doc, circa 2008

paris during post-doc, circa 2014