Claire Wyart is a neuroscientist who studies the integration of sensory systems and motor circuits to control behavior and development. She obtained her PhD in biophysics and neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg, then pioneered chemo-optogenetics during her postdoctorate at UC Berkeley (2005-2010), combining chemical and optical techniques to control neuronal activity remotely.
Since 2011, she has led a team at the Brain Institute, using zebrafish as a model for its transparency and genetic accessibility. By combining genetics, biophysics, electrophysiology, behavioral studies and modeling, she has discovered a new interoceptive sensory pathway. She reveals that ciliated neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal cord detect spinal curvature via a long fiber. These neurons modulate locomotion and posture while influencing spinal morphogenesis. They also detect spinal cord injuries caused by bacterial or viral pathogens.
Her current research aims to understand how interoceptive inputs integrate throughout life to influence behavior and morphogenesis, connecting the nervous system to the immune, muscular and skeletal systems.
Claire Wyart is the winner of the Antoine Lacassagne Award 2025, proposed by Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin, Chair of Paleoanthropology.