I am a postdoctoral researcher working out how cell fates are specified, and how molecules and tissues organize themselves.
I study how living systems build themselves through cell fate decisions and self-organization. I approach both questions from opposite ends of the spatial scale, from reconstituted molecular systems up to whole embryos and tissues. My work sits at the interface of quantitative biology, developmental biology, and molecular engineering, drawing heavily on tools from high-dimensional data analysis and physics.
How a single cell gives rise to the full diversity of an organism remains a central question in biology. Cell fate is specified as cells integrate their internal state with signals from neighboring cells and their physical environment. I track this process in the zebrafish embryo, focusing on three interconnected layers of control: transcriptional regulation, the mRNA post-transcriptional landscape, and mechanosensing & signal transduction.
Fate decisions play out across space and time, yet standard measurements usually force a trade-off between them. I develop and apply multimodal approaches that preserve both, in embryos, tissues, and cancer. Three ingredients add a spatial and temporal axis to sequencing: metabolic labeling of new transcripts, spatial-lineage tracing, and multimodal 3D+time integration.
Measured densely enough, these complex dynamics can be modeled quantitatively.
Living matter organizes itself across scales. To understand how this works, I build reconstituted systems held far from equilibrium, in which striking patterns, flows, and physical forms emerge spontaneously from a handful of simple molecular rules: reaction–diffusion patterning and active matter.
Chemistry and mechanics constantly feed back on one another, deforming, wrinkling, and sculpting the material. Because every component in these systems is defined, they can be modeled with mathematical precision and offer direct insight into how tissues pattern themselves in vivo.
Synthetic and engineering-based approaches allow us to deconstruct, modify, and repurpose biological processes. I design custom molecular programs such as riboregulators, synthetic gene circuits, and enzymatic DNA reaction networks, which serve two ends:
My current work expands into protein engineering, developing molecular architectures designed to record histories and to rewire signaling pathways.
In vivo single-cell RNA metabolic labeling resolves early transcriptional responders in the regenerating zebrafish heart. Nature Communications
Lineage origin and developmental context shape tumor states in MYCN-dependent zebrafish neuroblastoma. bioRxiv
Methods and compositions for barcoding nucleic acids. WO 2025/233344 A1
Design of molecular systems for artificial pattern formation and gene regulation. PhD thesis, Sorbonne Université
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