Dr Lucie Pepino

Lucie received her MSc and PhD degrees in Neuroscience from the University of Aix-Marseille (France). Her PhD project addressed sex-linked differences in an inflammatory pain model in Dr. Aziz Moqrich's lab (advised by Dr. Ana Reynders). Her project was designed to explore differences in pain perception at various levels of analysis, including global behaviour, hormone contribution, and spinal gene expression, in response to inflammatory-evoked pain. By further exploring one of the top upregulated genes in males, she identified a male-female difference in neutrophil recruitment to the spinal meninges, and more specifically to the pia mater. In the Pathania lab, Lucie will investigate how partner mutations in H3K27M and H3.3G34R gliomas modify interactions between brain tumour cells and their microenvironment (blood vessels, microglia, neurons, astrocytes and infiltrating immune cells). Additionnally, she will also investigate how paediatric gliomas modify meninges immunity (including both the dura and the pia mater).