Cecile Fort

I have been interested in different technics of live-microscopy and electron / cryo-microscopy in different biology project like plants, neurosciences and parasitology. I had a professional licence and master degree in these fields and I used these powerful techniques for different research project. After my master project in imagery, I’ve got the opportunity to work for one year in Graca Raposo’s lab at the Curie Institute in Paris and studied the biogenesis of melanosome by cryo-microscopy.

At the end of this contract, I postulated in a multi-disciplinary doctoral school and defend my PhD project with success. I got a funding to start my PhD in Philippe Bastin’s lab at the institute Pasteur in Paris. During my PhD career, I investigated the role and functioning of IFT in cilia/flagella in the protist Trypanosoma brucei by using a combination of microscopy and cell biology techniques.

 After completing my PhD, I moved in UK to the Marine Biological Association in October 2016 in Plymouth to studying the role of calcium signalling in cilia in the green algea Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. After my first post-doctoral project in Glen Wheeler’s lab, I joining Richard Wheeler’s group to NMD in November 2019. My work mainly focuses on how Leishmania mexicana use their single flagellum for many vital role in pathogenicity, including motility, surface attachment environmental sensing and morphogenesis.

Interests: cilia/flagella; motility, calcium signalling; live cell imaging; electron/cryo-microscopy.