Emilie Legue, PhD

Education and Training

September 2007-Present

Postdoctoral fellow, Joyner lab, Skirball Institute, NYU School of Medicine and Sloan-Kettering Institute

July 2005

Ph.D. thesis, Developmental Biology, University Paris 7
Cellular basis of hair follicle morphogenesis in the mouse. A clonal analysis using a method of temporal induction of clones. Paris 7 University/Pasteur Institute, Unit of molecular biology of development (supervisor: Pr. Jean-Francois Nicolas).

July 2001

Master, Molecular and Cellular Biology of Development, University Paris 7/Pasteur Institute

June 1999

BS, Biochemistry, University Paris 7

Publications

Fischer, E., Legué, E., Doyen, A., Nato, F., Nicolas, J. F., Torres, V., Yaniv, M. and Pontoglio, M. (2006). Defective planar cell polarization in polycystic kidney disease. Nat Genet, 38: 21-3.

Legué, E. and Nicolas, J. F. (2005). Hair follicle renewal : organization of stem cells in the matrix and the role of stereotyped lineages and behaviors. Development, 132: 4143-54.

Petit, A. C., Legué, E. and Nicolas, J. F. (2005). Methods in clonal analysis and applications. Reprod Nutr Dev, 45: 321-39.

Research Interests

I am interested in morphogenesis and how cell behaviors, that is cell proliferation, cell movements, lineage allocation and differentiation, are coordinated in order to give rise to a three-dimensionally shaped organ. The cerebellum is a very interesting model to study these questions. It has a relatively simple cellular organization that comprises several cell types arranged in specific layers, however it has a rather complex 3D organization: anatomically, the cerebellum is divided into a central vermis and two lateral hemispheres along the medial-lateral axis, and is divided into lobules along the anterior-posterior axis; furthermore, gene expression domains provide another level of organization along the medial-lateral and anterior-posterior axes. Interestingly, mutants for Engrailed genes display alteration of anatomical and genetic domains organization. My project is to describe how cells are spatially allocated relatively to the anatomical and genetic landmarks during cerebellum morphogenesis and to understand the roles of Engrailed genes in the coordination of these cell behaviors.