2023-2024 Vision Network Publication Award Laureates
August 1st 2023
Hugo LADRET
PhD student, Ecole d’optometrie / Universite de Montreal
Supervisor : Dr. Christian Casanova
Co-supervisor : Dr. Larent Perrinet (Aix-Marseilles Universite)
Publication: Ladret HJ, Cortes N, Ikan L, Chavane F, Casanova C, Perrinet LU. Cortical recurrence supports resilience to sensory variance in the primary visual cortex. Communications Biology, 6 (1), June 2023
My name is Hugo Ladret, and my academic career, which is interdisciplinary by choice, spans a period of exactly 10 years. My training began with a bachelor’s degree in cell biology at the University of Aix-Marseille, where I spent 2 years in a laboratory working on cortical plasticity (Ingrid Bureau, Institut de Neurobiologie de la Méditerranée). I then went on to do a Master’s degree in Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience at the same university, where I strengthened my skills in mathematics, signal processing and analysis, under the supervision of Dr Laurent Perrinet. In the second year of my Master’s degree, I am doing a 4-month internship in Prof. Christian Casanova’s laboratory (UdeM), reconnecting with my initial training as a biologist. Since September 2019, I have been a joint PhD student under the supervision of these two researchers, using my knowledge of biological neural networks to build the artificial neural networks of tomorrow.
Masayuki HATA
Postdoctoral Fellow, Universite de Montreal
Supervisor : Dr. Przemyslaw (Mike) Sapieha
Publication: Hata M, Hata M, Andriessen EM, Juneau R, Pilon F, Crespo-Garcia S, Diaz-Marin R, Guber V, Binet F, Fournier F, Buscarlet M, Grou C, Calderon V, Heckel E, Melichar HJ, Joyal JS, Wilson AM, Sapieha P. Early-life peripheral infections reprogram retinal microglia and aggravate neovascular agerelated macular degeneration in later life. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 133 (4), February 2023
Masayuki Hata was a former postdoctoral researcher (completed in September 2022) at the laboratory of Prof. Przemyslaw Sapieha at the University of Montreal in the field of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and is currently assistant professor at Kyoto University, Japan. His interest focuses on the understanding of innate immunity in pathological angiogenesis and neuro-inflammatory diseases. Since obtaining his MD and starting his career as an ophthalmologist in 2007, followed by studies as a PhD student and postdoctoral fellow in fundamental science, he has been consistently involved in research on AMD and retinal degenerative diseases. He has conducted research on elucidation of pathological mechanisms, drug discoveries, and precision medicine in these diseases using various approaches of basic research, clinical research, and translational research. He has published 85 peer reviewed scientific papers (28 as first author) in journals in the field of ophthalmology and fundamental science. He has first author or corresponding author publications in high impact journals such as Science, JCI, PNAS, IOVS, Retina, American Journal of Ophthalmology, and Ophthalmology Retina. His recent works focusing on the role of innate immunity in pathological angiogenesis and vascular remodeling are published in Science (as a first author), Journal of Clinical Investigation (as a first author), Science (coauthor), and EMBO Molecular Medicine (co-author). He has given over 30 presentations at various meetings including international symposium sessions.
Gaëlle Stephanie MAWAMBO TAGNE
Postdoctoral Fellow, Universite de Montréal
Supervisor : Dr. Przemyslaw (Mike) Sapieha
Publication: Gaëlle Mawambo, Malika Oubaha, Yusuke Ichiyama, Guillaume Blot, Sergio Crespo‐Garcia, Agnieszka Dejda, François Binet, Roberto Diaz‐Marin, Christina Sawchyn, Mikhail Sergeev, Rachel Juneau, Randal J. Kaufman, El Bachir Affar, Frédérick A. Mallette, Ariel M. Wilson and Przemyslaw Sapieha. HIF1α-dependent hypoxia response in myeloid cells requires IRE1α, Journal of Neuroinflammation, 20 (1), June 2023
Born in Douala, Cameroon, I immigrated to Canada in 2008, where I began my undergraduate studies with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Montreal. I then joined Dr. Przemyslaw (Mike) Sapieha’s research team to pursue my graduate studies in biochemistry, making a direct passage from master’s to doctorate. During my graduate studies, I contributed greatly to the majority of the laboratory’s publications, including our team’s first innovative project (Binet F, Mawambo G, and al. Cell Metabolism, 2013), which demonstrated the ability of the axonal guidance molecule netrin-1 to induce the secretion of the pro-angiogenic factor VEGF-A by cerebral macrophages or microglia in the context of vascular retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in industrialized countries. Still in the same pathology, we then published an article (Dejda A & Mawambo G, and al. The journal of Clinical Investigation, 2014) showing the impact of the neuropillin-1 receptor. My latest study, recently published and currently being presented as part of the Vision Network Publication Award, concludes my PhD work and investigated the potential crosstalk between the UPR pathway, specifically the IRE1a pathway, and HIF1α pathway during the response of myeloid cells to hypoxic stress within the ischemic retina. Our paper identified a myeloid-based mechanism where IRE1α modulates the HIF1α-driven cytokine production such as IL1β, IL6 and VEGF-A that partake in pathological angiogenesis during retinopathy.