Dr. Claire Wyart
Written by Margarida Pinto
Dr. Claire Wyart’s passion for science is deeply anchored in the sea. Even before university, she discovered the world of biology by looking and collecting marine life. This passion eventually came full circle when she started to do research using zebrafish as a model organism, which she still does to this day. Currently, Claire is a Principal Investigator at the Paris Brain Institute, where her lab investigates how sensory cues are integrated to shape movements and posture during active locomotion in the zebrafish.
Principal Investigator Paris Brain Institute
Postdoctoral Fellow University of California - Berkeley
PhD in Neuroscience & Biophysics Institute of Physics - Strasbourg
During her bachelors in Biology at École Normale Supérieure, Claire further developed an interest in biodiversity and group dynamics of fish. It was also during her undergraduate studies that she developed her passion for neuroscience, through classes taught by a pioneer in the field of NMDA receptor function. At the end of her undergraduate, she had the opportunity to go to the United States for a research internship, where she worked on a project that analyzed plaque accumulation in Alzheimer’s disease. This was her first research project, and the moment she realized how much she enjoyed the problem solving part of the scientific process - the “‘Sherlock Holmes’ part of science”.
Eager to solve more scientific mysteries, Claire realized that pursuing a PhD was the clear choice for her next step. She conducted her PhD at the Strasbourg Institute of Physics under the supervision of Dr. Didier Chatenay in what she describes as a “free place, where you could do anything you wanted”. At the time, Claire was interested in the idea of controlling neuronal networks in vitro –their connectivity and their number of neurons. During her PhD, she established a protocol of photolithography for growing ordered neuronal networks, with constrained locations of neuronal cell bodies and patterns of connectivity. This protocol allowed Claire to investigate the excitatory/inhibitory nature of the neurons through immunohistochemistry, as well as their activity patterns through electrophysiology. She discovered a homeostatic principle of regulation; independently of the size of the network, there was a similar level of spontaneous activity of the neurons. At all stages of her career, Claire was interested in developing new techniques and approaches that are able to solve or to explore biological phenomena. Importantly, she learned how to start a project on her own, which despite having been a lonely process, allowed her to grow and learn how to persevere.
Although Claire planned to do a postdoc after completing her PhD, she decided to first take a gap year to go to India and Nepal, acting as an instructor to teach experiments to kids in junior and high school. Even though Claire was very happy to be interacting with so many people in this new environment, she deeply missed academia – “I missed the challenge, the intrigue”. Despite this, she describes this experience outside of academia as enlightening, allowing her to have a clear view of what she wanted to do and what she cared for.
When asked how she chose her postdoc, Claire shares that, during her PhD, she originally had planned to join a specific lab that would allow her to build on her PhD topic. However, she later realized the competitiveness of this particular lab, in which funding was slim and team members often put their lab life in front of their personal one. As she was pregnant at the time, Claire decided to look elsewhere for a postdoc lab. Realizing she would like to do research in vivo, she interviewed for several labs working on different species and ultimately decided to join the lab of Dr. Noam Sobel at the University of California – Berkeley, who was conducting research in humans. However, a year after she joined the lab, Claire encountered another challenge - Noam had taken a job offer in Israel, but Claire could not relocate. While she found human research interesting, she missed the ability to work directly with neuronal circuitry, so she took it as an opportunity to find a better suited lab and research project. This was a very stressful period for Claire, but she persevered and learned the importance of resiliency and of finding the right place to thrive.
While searching for a new postdoc lab, Claire attended a science show-and-tell event, where she heard a postdoc talk about an opsin that could be used to control neuronal activity. This immediately intrigued her and ultimately led her to join the lab of Dr. Ehud Isacoff, also at University of California – Berkeley. At the time, the field of Optogenetics was just starting, and the Isacoff lab had developed an alternative approach, using an endogenous channel rendered light sensitive by chemical modification. By modifying a ligand-binding domain of the ionotropic glutamate receptor (iGluR), they developed a light-activated channel, named LiGluR. The induced structural alteration allows for the attachment of a photoisomerable molecule (a photoswitch) that reversibly activates the receptor. Due to its conformation, depending on the light wavelength the photoswitch can open the ion channel by placing the glutamate into the channel's binding pocket, or withdraw it to close the channel. She developed her project in collaboration with Dr. Filippo del Benne, from the lab of Dr. Herwig Baier at the University of California – San Francisco, who had generated the first transgenic zebrafish line carrying the LiGluR receptor. Using this model, they identified a spinal input into the central pattern generator that drives spontaneous locomotion in the zebrafish larvae. Further, they identified that the Kolmer-Agdhur cell, whose function was previously unknown, provides the necessary tone for spontaneous forward swimming.
Becoming a P.I. was never Claire’s explicit plan. Her main goal was just to continue to do science. However, reflecting on the instability and competitiveness that she experienced in her training as a postdoc, she felt driven to create a different environment for the next generation of trainees in academia. This became her career goal. She wanted to start a lab in which young scientists could find the support and trust in each other that she wasn't able to find for herself. She was confident that in this type of environment, better science could be done as well. As a P.I. now, nourishing a supportive environment for everyone remains both a goal and a challenge.
Navigating the field to find her own scientific niche was not unlike growing up in a big family; Claire was experienced in charting her own, distinct path from her siblings (and colleagues). At the time when she was setting up her lab, most people were studying vision in zebrafish and doing whole cell imaging. Claire took an alternative path, continuing her work on optogenetics and locomotion, which was both exciting and challenging since very few people were doing it. Currently, her team pursues research along 3 different axes: 1) probing pathways in the hindbrain and spinal cord involved in locomotion; 2) studying a conserved central sensory system in the spinal cord also involved in locomotion and posture; and 3) how sensory integration in the spinal cord is achieved throughout life.
If she could have taken any other career, Claire says that she would have been a movie director. In fact, during high school she really wanted to be an artist. She loved being creative, drawing and making movies, but her mother warned her that a creative career would not be a viable choice for independence. While she could have overruled this, the beauty and natural creativity she saw in biological systems ultimately led her to pursue Biology. Currently, she keeps in touch with movie making through her work and keeps finding opportunities to collaborate with artists to create Science outreach pieces. This has not only allowed her to stay in touch with her creative side, but also connect more with her work – “Staying connected to your emotions as a scientist, to some extent (…), is the key to finding your path and your own satisfaction independent of recognition”.
From art, to marine biology, and ultimately to neuroscience (at different levels and shapes), Claire’s journey is one about self-discovery and perseverance. By going with the flow and making the best out of every challenge, Claire successfully directed her career and ultimately merged her passions together to create a trajectory uniquely hers.
Find out more about Claire and her lab’s research here.
Listen to Margarida’s full interview with Claire on September 20th, 2022 below!
