Nathalie Sans: Vice-President for research

After a Master degree in biochemistry at the University of Montpellier, Nathalie Sans turned to sensory neurobiology for her DEA (Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondie). She then complted her doctoral thesis in the Inserm laboratory of Neurobiology and Development of the Vestibular System in Montpellier. In 1997, Nathalie Sans joined the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (Maryland) in the USA for her post-doctorate.

Until 2005, her research focused on the organisation and role of molecular complexes in receptor trafficking up to the level of excitatory synapses, with a real interest in the plasticity of these connections, which are essential for brain development. In 2004, as the winner of an Inserm Avenir programme, Nathalie Sans chose Bordeaux the following year to develop the project and participate as a young emerging team in the creation of the Neurocentre Magendie.

In January 2007, she was recruited as a level-1 research fellow within the Neurocentre and then promoted to research director in 2014 on the "Planar Polarity and Plasticity" team which she co-directs today. In 2015, she was appointed deputy director of the Neurocentre Magendie. As soon as the University of Bordeaux was created in 2014, Nathalie Sans joined the board of the Life and Health Sciences department, and became its deputy director a few years later.

During her term on the board, the idea emerged of leading and federating the research efforts of the fifty or so neuroscience teams in Bordeaux working in 6 different institutes. She then worked on reorganising the sector of neuroscience research, which was to become the Bordeaux Neurocampus department, with her at its head in 2019.  

Nathalie Sans was also involved in establishing the Bordeaux School of Neuroscience, the CAJAL programmes, the Bordeaux Neurocampus Graduate Programme, a member of the executive committee of the BRAIN Laboratory of Excellence and also contributed to the development of the BRAIN_2030 Major Research Programme (GPR).
 

Key dates

1996 - PhD in neuroscience, University of Montpellier II, Science and Techniques of Languedoc

1997 - Post-doctorate, National Institute of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA)

2003 - Senior research fellow, National Institute of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA)

2005 - Head of the Avenir emerging team, Inserm / Bordeaux Segalen University

2012 - Accreditation to supervise research, Bordeaux Segalen University

2014 - Inserm research director, Neurocentre Magendie

2015 - Deputy director of Neurocentre Magendie

2019 - Director of Bordeaux Neurocampus

2022 - Vice-President for research, University of Bordeaux