Principal investigators
Prof. Patrizia d'Ettorre (Project Coordinator)
Prof. Patrizia d’Ettorre is the main coordinator of the project and responsible of one of the three research themes (Communication and Cognition) of the Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology (LEEC) at Paris 13. She is an internationally recognized expert in behavioural and chemical ecology of social insects. She published 76 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, 6 book chapters (Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Springer) and edited a volume for broad scientific audience (Sociobiology of Communication: an interdisciplinary perspective, Oxford University Press, 2008). Before being appointed as Professor in France, she has been working in Italy, Germany and Denmark, where she was a Team Leader of the Copenhagen Centre for Social Evolution.
Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité,
Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée,
email: patrizia.dettorre@leec.univ-paris13.fr
Prof. Martin Giurfa
Martin Giurfa was appointed Director of the Research Centre of Animal Cognition in 2003 and is Professor at the University of Toulouse, France. He is elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences and of the Institut Unversitaire de France, a French Professorial Academy of Sciences. Martin was awarded the Silver Medal of CNRS in 2007. He is guest professor of several foreign universities. Martin’s research focuses on invertebrate learning and memory at different organization levels, from behavior to molecules. He uses 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' approaches and research tools from neuroethology, experimental psychology, neurobiology, computational neurosciences and molecular biology in order to characterize and understand the complexity and the rules underlying associative learning in honey bees and to identify its neuronal and molecular mechanisms.
Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III -
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS
email: martin.giurfa@univ-tlse3.fr
Dr. Nina Deisig
Dr. Nina Deisig is a full time researcher at the INRA of Versailles. She worked on olfactory learning and the ability of extracting single components in olfactory mixtures in honeybees. During her postdoctoral stages, she turned to the neurophysiological level and looked at how olfactory mixtures are coded in the antennal lobe. She first continued this work in honeybees, using optical imaging techniques (in vivo calcium imaging) at the CRCA in Toulouse. Since her recruitment at the INRA Versailles in 2008, she looks at plant odour/pheromone interactions at the central coding level in male moth. Besides staining the input side of the antennal lobe neurons (receptor neurons), she tries to establish the specific staining of the antennal lobe output side (projection neurons), a technique that is difficult in moths. Recently, she was formed in the technique of in vivo patch-clamp on cultures of olfactory receptor neurons in order to study the role of presynaptic inhibition in the antennal lobe network in moth. She is further responsible for the insect rearing (Agrotis ipsilon) in the Versailles lab.
Université Pierre et Marie Curie,
Institut d'Ecologie et des Sciences de l'Environnement de Paris, INRA,
email: nina.deisig@versailles.inra.fr
Dr. Jean-Marc Devaud
Dr. Jean Marc Devaud is an Assistant Professor (Maître de Conférences, HDR) in Martin Giurfa’s team. He is specialized in volumetric analyses in the honeybee brain including cellular analyses of synaptic density, etc. He is also a specialist in reversible blocking of neural activity, which he set for the study of mushroom body function in olfactory learning experiments.
Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III -
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS
email: jean-marc.devaud@univ-tlse3.fr
Dr. David Baracchi
Graduated in 2005 in Biological Science, and specialised in 2007 in Behavioural Biology, Dr David Baracchi finished hi PhD on Ecology and Animal Behaviour in 2012. During his PhD, he investigated the proximate and ultimate factors affecting the behavioural ecology and immunity of insect societies. He worked as Marie Curie Research Fellow in Prof. Lars Chittka’s lab at Queen Mary University of London investigating how secondary metabolites of nectars affect foraging behaviour in bumblebees via enhanced memory for floral traits and whether nectars pharmacologically manipulate pollinators’ behaviour. He also extended his interest to cognitive capacities of bumblebees and chemical and visual communication in social wasps (Polistinae and Stenogastrinae). Currently he is postdoc at Université Paris 13 and Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier working on honeybees and ants for the Pheromod Project.
Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité,
Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée,
web site: here email: david.baracchi@gmail.com
Dr. Michel Renou
Dr. Michel Renou is senior research scientist (Directeur de Recherche) at the INRA of Versailles. He has worked for several years on the chemical and sensory ecology of insects, gaining an expertise in the behavioural and neurophysiological effects of pheromones in moths, notably Agrotis ipsilon. He published about 80 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, including reviews on pheromone communication.
Université Pierre et Marie Curie,
Institut d'Ecologie et des Sciences de l'Environnement de Paris, INRA,
email: michel.renou@versailles.inra.fr
Dr. Matthieu Dacher
Dr. Matthieu Dacher has recently joined the faculty of Paris 6 University as an assistant professor (Maître de Conférences) and performs research in the INRA of Versailles. He has extended experience in behavioural studies in insects, particularly in pharmacological studies of conditioning, learning and memory in bees and now in moths.
Université Pierre et Marie Curie,
Institut d'Ecologie et des Sciences de l'Environnement de Paris, INRA,
email: matthieu.dacher@upmc.fr
Dr. Morgane Nouvian
Morgane Nouvian is currently doing a joint PhD in the labs of Martin Giurfa (France) and Judith Reinhard (Australia). Her project investigates how plant odours can modulate aggression in honeybees, and in particular how they compete with the alarm pheromone, another olfactory signal. As a part of her project she also studied the role of biogenic amines in aggression and after exposure to the alarm pheromone.
Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III -
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS
email: jm.nouvian@uq.edu.au
Dr. Gabriela de Brito Sanchez
Dr. Gabriela de Brito Sanchez is a CNRS Research Engineer (IR) specialized in electrophysiology. Her PhD thesis was achieved at the Max Planck Institut Seewiesen, under the direction of an international leader in pheromonal research, Prof. K. E. Kaissling. She will provide valuable support to the characterization of the effects of pheromone exposure on olfactory circuits.
Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III -
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS
email: maria.de-brito-sanchez@univ-tlse3.fr
Dr. Elise Nowbahari
Dr. Elise Nowbahari is an Assistant Professor (Maitre de Conférences) at the LEEC. She has extensive experience with fine tuned behavioural analysis of ants, including learning performances and altruistic behaviour. She will provide valuable feedback and expertise on the behavioural protocols involving ants.
Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité,
Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée,
email: elise.nowbahari@leec.univ-paris13.fr
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Dr. Natacha Rossi
Graduated in 2015 in Evolutionary, Behavioral and Functional Ecology, Natacha Rossi is specialized in the study of pollinator behavior. Indeed, she studied flower constancy in two Uruguayan species of bumblebees and also studied the secreted male sexual pheromone in Bombus terrestris. She is now currently doing her PhD under the direction of Martin Giurfa and Patrizia D'Ettorre in the frame of the Pheromod project, focusing on the aversive part of the project in honeybees and ants.
Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III -
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS
email: natacha.rossi@univ-tlse3.fr
Technicians
Chloé Leroy is a high-qualified technician (Ingénieur d'Etudes) at the LEEC. She has a Master in Organic Chemistry and she will thus provide significant assistance with pheromone purchasing and preparation, checking the purity of the solutions and preparing chemical extracts for behavioural experiments.
Paul Devienne is a technician at the LEEC. He is the manager of the animal rearing facilities and has extensive experience in handling ant colonies and constructing small devices for behavioural experiments.
Stéphane Ferrere is a University Technician specialized in electro-mechanics. He is responsible for a workshop, which will furnish setups and automatic control of apparatuses commanded by the team.
Isabelle Touton is a full time technician at the INRA of Versailles and has extensive experience in insect rearing. She will be in charge of the management of the Agrotis ipsilon rearing stock.