Thomas Lecuit

Thomas Lecuit received his scientific training from Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and obtained a B.Sc. from Paris University in 1994. He did his Ph.D. at the EMBL in Heidelberg-Germany in 1995-1998 and served postdoctoral fellowships at the Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton (1998-2001). He was appointed group leader at the IBDML in Marseille University, Marseille, France in 2001 and was tenured from CNRS at IBDML in 2006. His laboratory investigates the mechanisms of cell polarization, tissue morphogenesis and mechanics, using the fruitfly Drosophila as a model system. A major focus of the research is to understand how tissues maintain or lose control of the balance between robustness and plasticity.