Interests

During my Master’s internships, I focused on endodermal and mesodermal differentiation, which laid the experimental and intellectual foundation for my later research. With my PhD work in Pujades lab I matured and refined my understanding of differentiation and its multifaceted aspects by delving in depth into the field of neurogenesis. Through in-vivo observation we can uncover unknown players necessary for differentiation of specific cell types. Being spatial or temporal cues, discovery of those elements would be up to a guessing game if we were to seek them in-vitro. Once specific cues are identified it is of crucial importance to establish how necessary and sufficient they are to the generation of specific cell types. For this, in-vitro approach provides a controllable environment and the prospect of differentiated cells being used for clinical application. Finally, once individual elements can be generated independently the remaining challenges is to understand how those diverse cells can assemble and form coherent structures. In order to explore those scientific field development of innovative tools is essential. The advanced tools we develop allow us to delve into biological processes with unparalleled clarity, manipulate genetic material with precision, and analyze vast datasets. Tool development not only enhance our capacity to make discoveries it can open new fields of research by changing our ways to interact and observe biology.

Scientific

Cell Differentiation

Understanding of how cell diversity is generated is essential. Our ability to leverage biological mechanisms relies heavily on our understanding of cell identities and the way they are generated throughout development. In-vivo studies are necessary to uncover unknown mechanisms that drive the generation of specialized cell types.

Cell Reprogramming

By reproducing specific cell types in-vitro we can confirm the established knowledge of differentiation and put it to good use. Through a refined control of in-vitro differentiation and cell reprogramming, I believe that we can bring forward a new era of biotechnology and cell therapy.

Tissue Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis remains one of the most elusive fields of biology, the way by which multicellular organisms develop complex structures out of individual components. This process requires an advanced understanding of both proliferation and differentiation mechanisms. Understanding of morphogenetic mechanisms will prove invaluable for future research aiming to create synthetic organs.

Tool Development

Genetic Engineering

With advances in our ability to sequence, synthetize and modify DNA the perspective of being able to encode complex series of events is now a reality. Through the combinations of inducible promoters, recombination proteins and Cas9 mediated targeting we are getting closer and closer to reliably program biological events.

Transgenesis

The generation of transgenic lines is an essential aspect of research. It is partially thanks to transgenics that we are able to act on living organisms and observe biological events. The generation of complex transgenic lines can now allow us to follow multiple cellular features simultaneously.

Image Analysis

As the data we acquire becomes increasingly complex drawing relevant insight from it is now more than ever the challenge. Not only can image analysis bring forward previously unattainable information, but it can also improve the efficiency of research by enabling to combine information from multiple experiments.

Personal

Engineering

My dream as a kid was to be an inventor. In my free time I often like to build things, sometimes to make my life easier in the lab sometimes just out of curiosity. I like to tinker with electronics and made a couple things over the years, a portable speaker from the scrap of a guitar amplifier, a smart alarm clock that can be used to turn on utilities, monitors from scrapped broken laptops, a magnification scope etc…

3D Design

I often need to generate my own 3D models with CAD software to build the things I want to make. Most of what I’ve made over the years has been made using at least partially 3D printing. Therefore, I’ve taken a liking to generating my designs. I’ve been using fusion 360 which is geared exclusively towards engineering but I’m thinking on learning blender which allows for more organic methods of modelisation.

Climbing

Everyone needs to unwind from time to time, for me climbing is the perfect way to do so. It combines a full body workout with some problem solving, making it entertaining and new every time. I’ve been climbing indoors for couple years and would like to start doing outdoor climbing in the future!

Scientific output

Publications

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4892-8161

Congress & Awards

Digital resources

Image analysis codes

https://github.com/Matthias-Blanc

Python scripts in development

Align: 3D/4D rigid registration software, supervised/unsupervised training of neural network, automated rigid registration across samples or modalities.

PhenoSpike: 3D calcium activity analysis, signal extraction using segmented single cell masks, intersection with 3D atlas, feature extraction, clustering.

Fiji Macros

Batch processing for 3D atlas generation: Segmentation, Sample averaging, Intersection of 3D models and volume quantification.

Lab tools 3D Designs

https://www.thingiverse.com/matthiasblanc