Gofflot F.

MOLECULAR AND INTEGRATIVE NEUROBIOLOGY

GROUP LEADER

FRANCOISE GOFFLOT	Profile
	Dr. Françoise Gofflot did a thesis in the field of Developmental Toxicology (Prof J. Picard) and received her PhD in 1994 (UCL, Belgium). She performed postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford (Prof. G. Morriss-Kay) in Developmental Genetics, and studied the mechanisms underlying the genesis of neural tube defects in the mutant mice Curly Tail. From 1997 to 2003, back at the UCL, she studied the functions of Hedgehog proteins during the first stages of embryonic development, focusing on neural tube and limb formation. From 2003 to 2008, Françoise Gofflot worked in the Mouse Clinical Institute in Strasbourg (France). Her work on the systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis of expression of the nuclear receptors in the adult brain led to the creation of an interactive database, MousePat. She was also involved in the characterization of transgenic mouse lines expressing an inducible form of the Cre recombinase, to be used for conditional mutagenesis in mouse. In 2008, Françoise Gofflot joined ISV with a "Mandat d’impulsion Ulysse (FNRS)" and is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the UCL. Her current interest is mainly focused on deciphering the late functions of Hox genes and of their cofactors in the mouse brain, using a “top-down” modular approach. Fields of expertise:  Mouse genetics Embryonic development Development and anatomy of the central nervous system Gene expression analysis (RT-qPCR and in situ hybridization)
Unité de Biologie Animale Bt.Carnoy (a.180) 5 Croix du Sud Box L7.07.02 B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve-Belgium	Email : Tel. +32 10 47 29 93 Fax. +32 10 47 35 15

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

The Hox genes code for a family of transcription factors which determine the identity of cells and tissues during embryonic development. Although their expression and their functions in the embryo are well established, their expression in adult tissues has only been recently considered, and their functions in the adult remain to be determined. At the level of the central nervous system (CNS), Hox proteins play a key role by specifying the formation of the neuronal and glial cell types from undifferentiated progenitors.

Although the data on foetal as well as postnatal Hox genes expression are fragmentary, they suggest :

• a modification of rules governing their earlier expression.
• a potential association with important brain functions.
• that the disturbance of their expression could be associated with the appearance of psychiatric diseases or tumors.

In this context, our research work aims to examine the late functions of Hox genes and of their cofactors in the brain. To reach this objective, we analyse in a standardized and systematic way the expression of the 39 Hox genes and 9 known cofactors in the brain of the foetus, the youth and the adult mouse. We use two complementary and highly standardized approaches, both based on mRNAs detection, to map NR expression in the CNS.

First, real-time RT-qPCR is used to provide a global and quantitative profile of the expression patterns of the Hox genes and their cofactors in the embryonic brain and in defined sub-regions of the postnatal and adult brain. Second, to place the expression data in a spatially resolved, neuro-anatomical context, high-resolution in situ hybridisation is applied on adult brain sections. To identify the genes participating in functional networks and to establish links between genes and brain functions, we used clustering statistical analysis.

STAFF

Staff 2011-2012

Staff 2009-2010

Staff 2011-2012
Group leader	Françoise Gofflot
Post-doc	Benoit  Lizen
Undergraduate students	Deborah Sauvegarde
Technical assistant	Marie-Thérèse Ahn, Konstantin Doshishti-Agolli

Staff 2009-2010
Group leader	Françoise Gofflot
Post-doc	Nicolas Theys
Undergraduate students	Diane Bissen, Cécile Coste, Bertrand Hutlet, Benoit Lizen
Technical assistant	Marie-Thérèse Ahn, Konstantin Doshishti-Agolli