 |
|
| Christine I. Thisse obtained her diploma in nursing in 1982 and was employed by the Hopital Universitaire de Strasbourg, France, in the pneumology department. She then participated to the creation of a new department devoted to throat cancer therapy and surgery. In 1986, she received her master’s degree in molecular and cellular biology. She entered the PhD program (LGME, Strasbourg ; Director: P. Chambon), studied the regulation of the drosophila zygotic twist gene by the maternal morphogene dorsal gene, and received her doctorate in 1991. She did her postdoctoral studies with J.H. Postlethwait in the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA. Her main focus was on early patterning of the zebrafish embryo. She obtained a CNRS position in 1993 and became group leader in the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, in Strasbourg, France (Directors : P. Chambon, followed by J.L Mandel). Christine, her husband Bernard (also a director of research in the CNRS) and her team made important contributions to the field of early patterning and formation of the embryonic axes of the zebrafish embryo. They established that the dorso-ventral axis depends on the morphogenetic activity of BMPs, controlled by dorsal inhibitors such as noggin, ogon and follistatin. They have demonstrated that the expression of BMPs depends on the inbitory action of FGFs, which are themselves controlled by retrofeedback inhibitors, such as sprouty 2, 4 and a novel factor, sef. They established for the first time that the antero-posterior axis depends of the action of the Activin/ Nodal pathway, controlled by the competitive inhibitor, Antivin, a lefty-group member. They then studied interactions between these signalling pathways and found that they are able to direct cells to novel programs of determination. The cooperative activity of BMP, Nodal and Wnt leads cells to behave as an organizer center, independent of the Spemann organizer and induces ectopic tail formation. They have also conducted an NIH-funded genomic project, consisting of a high throughput hybridization screen devoted to describe the expression of the whole zebrafish genome. All data (pictures, key words, sequence, informations and ordering of the clones) are available through a public database : zfin.org. |
 |
|
