Sébastien Gaumer

Sébastien Gaumer received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Genetics in 2001 for his work on programmed cell death at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique during which he showed that Bcl-2 family proteins are functional in Drosophila melanogaster. He did his post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania & Howard Hughes Medical Institute under the supervision of Nancy Bonini, where he studied the Machado Joseph polyglutamine neurodegenerative disease in Drosophila.

He is currently an Associate Professor at the Université Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines where he is in charge of a master’s programme. He is considered as a specialist in cell biology and cell-stress response. His research group in the Laboratory of Genetics and Cell Biology headed by Pr. Bernard Mignotte mainly focuses on the consequences of protein aggregation and chronic ER stress including autophagy, programmed cell death and compensatory mechanisms in Drosophila. Based on its experience on these subjects, his group uncovers the mechanisms of action of genetic factors favoring human diseases by using Drosophila genetics.