Research
General overview and Research Groups
The Turing Centre aims to stimulate a highly interdisciplinary community, especially physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists who, together with biologists, provide the means to base experimental studies on solid quantitative grounds, to identify new questions and conceptualize new ways of understanding the complexity of living systems.
Life is based on dynamic systems whose organisational principles remain unclear due to their complexity. Such complexity has different origins. Living systems are the product of a long evolutionary history and are intrinsically dynamic as they develop, renew their components, adapt to their physiological environments and are trained. This is illustrated for instance in the development of embryos and organs, and in the function of the immune and nervous systems.
Understanding biological complexity is one of the most significant challenges for the future. It will impact both basic research and medicine, since diseases emerge from anomalies in the organisation and dynamics of living systems.
The Turing Centre addresses the nature of the information underlying biological processes, and the organisation and dynamics of biological structures. Five over-arching questions bring together biologists interested in development, neuroscience and immunology experts along with physicists, while computational biologists and mathematicians underlie the research effort:
How does genetic information impact cell fates?
How do signalling dynamics impact cell differentiation?
How is information encoded in collective cellular dynamics?
How do networks of cell interactions form and function collectively?
How does mechanics impact cell and tissue organisation and dynamics?
CENTURI recruits researchers and post-docs with backgrounds in computational biology, theoretical physics or biophysics, with a strong interest in working in a cross-disciplinary environment.
CENTURI fellows
Principal Investigators
Mathematical modelling of the ecology & evolution of host-associated microbiota
Brain mechanisms of flexible behavior
Understanding developmental reproducibility at the single cell scale
Self-organization and collective effects in living systems
Neural networks for the representation of 3D environments
Phillipe Roudot (Institut Fresnel)
Dynamic bioimage mining for live cell microscopy
Out-of-equilibrium Mechanics (OM)
Learning Meaningful Representations of Life
Florence Bansept (LCB) - Mathematical modelling of the ecology & evolution of host-associated microbiota
Lorenzo Fontolan (Inmed - CPT) - Brain mechanisms of flexible behavior
Léo Guignard (LIS) - Understanding developmental reproducibility at the single cell scale
Matthias Merkel (CPT) - Self-organization and collective effects in living systems
Hervé Rouault (CPT - INMED) - Neural networks for the representation of 3D environments
Pierre Ronceray (CPT) -Theoretical modeling and inference methods for the physics of soft biological matter
Phillipe Roudot (Institut Fresnel) - Dynamic bioimage mining for live cell microscopy
Jean-François Rupprecht (CPT) - Out-of-equilibrium Mechanics (OM)
Paul Villoutreix (LIS) - Marseille Machine Learning Team
Postdoctoral fellow
Sophie Carneiro Esteves (Fresnel) - Unsupervised 3D Nuclei Segmentation in Deep Tissue via Motion Model Constraints
Anthony De Constanzo - Representational alignment between large language models and neural activity
Florian Labourel (LCB) - Metabolism and multi-stable equilibria in the gut microbiome
Vitor Marquioni Monteiro (LCB) - Mathematical Modeling of Gut Microbiome
Miquel Sendra Ortola - Metabolic adjustments in embryonic cells filling spaces in closed egg systems
Sophie Carneiro Esteves (Fresnel)
Unsupervised 3D Nuclei Segmentation in Deep Tissue via Motion Model Constraints
Anthony
DeCostanzo (Inmed/CPT)
Representational alignment between large language models and neural activity
Metabolic adjustments in embryonic cells filling spaces in closed egg systems
PhD students
Ahmad Awada (LAI, I2M) - Reverse adhesive haptotaxis: from reductionist experimentation to mathematical and physical modeling
Alexandre Bonomo (CIML/LIS) - Multi-view machine learning analysis of intestinal immune response
Marie-Jose Chaaya (I2M, IBDM) Modeling tumor innervation: impact on immune cells and anti-cancer treatment
Arthur Coët MIO/CINaM) - Deciphering bacterial colonization of marine snow
Marie Dessard (CIML/LAI) - How cholesterol and phospholipids fine tune T cell early mechanosensitivity?
Baya Djadoun (IBDM) - Neural Tissue patterning: how tissue mechanics feedbacks on genetically encoded programs
Mariam Dynar (IBDM) - Analysis of embryonic development variability in Parhyale hawaiensis: From embryo registration to variability measurement
Jaime Fernandez MacGregor (TAGC) - Modeling human network perturbations by bacterial proteins
Mathias Ramm Haugland (IBDM/LIS) - MitoLearner: deep learning and explainable AI to understand the role of mitochondria genes in cancer cells
Matthew Jones (LCB) - Salmonella facing neutrophils: bacterial survival under unconventional reactive species
Ludovica Iannello (CPT/INMED) - Functional Heterogeneity of Hippocampal Fast Oscillations for Memory Processing
Andrei Karpov (AFMB/LAI) - Physical and structural characterization of the interplay between the cell membranes, actin filaments and Chikungunya protein nsP1
Sarah Kraiem (Inmed/CPT) - How are cognitive maps affected in a mouse model of ASD?
Martin Lardy (IRPHE,IBDM) - Computational Fluid Dynamics to infer embryonic tissue rheology
Emma Legait (IBDM) - Deciphering the self-organizing principles governing the cellular composition and growth of tumors
Marvin Leria (IBDM) - PCP plasticity in the basal metazoan Trichoplax adhaerens
Christopher Mazzerbo (IBDM/CIML) - Quantification and modeling of embryonic lymph node organogenesis at the single cell scale
Ismahene Mesbah (LAI, IBDM) - Decoding protein structural folds, sequence and structural motifs
Petra Mikec (IBDM, DyNaMo) - The Mechanics of Ovulation
Piyush Mishra (I2M, Institut Fresnel) - Weakly-supervised inferences of molecular dynamics for fluorescence imaging in physiological environments
Tom Orjollet-Lacomme (Inmed/IRPHE) - What role for effort and time in decision making and motor control during foraging?
Harshit Pateria (IBDM/MMG) - Integrating transcription and lineage to define spatiotemporal trajectories of cardiac progenitor cells
Jessica Pereira Silva (INMED/I2M) - Behavioural grammar and synaptic rules of the social brain
Pablo Alejandro Perez Bastia (LAI/IBDM) - Memory driven active instabilities in gastruloids
Claire Plateaux (MMG/I2M) - Digital Twins of organoids by multi-scale modeling
Yan Plötze (IBDM/CPT) - Characterizing the Growth Dynamics and Spatial Coverage of Drosophila Sensory Neurons
Tanishq Rajaswi (IBDM/Fresnel) - Exploring the Tissue Biomechanics of Intestinal Crypt Fission
Shreelekshmi Rajesh (I2M/CIML/CRCM) - Modeling T Cell activation mechanisms to elucidate the processing of dynamic stimuli
Mirindra Ratsifandrihamanana (INMED, CPT) - Circuits supporting dynamics transitions in the developing hippocampus
Louis Ritchie (Inmed) - Understanding Early Sharp Waves in the Developing Hippocampus using Computational Modelling
Jad Sleiman (CIML/LAI) - Imprint of mechanical forces on antibody affinity maturation in B cell immune responses
João Pedro Valeriano Miranda (CINaM) - Learning hidden structures in the stochastic dynamics of living systems
Reverse adhesive haptotaxis: from reductionist experimentation to mathematical and physical modeling
Multi-view machine learning analysis of intestinal immune response
Modeling tumor innervation: impact on immune cells and anti-cancer treatment
Deciphering bacterial colonization of marine snow
How cholesterol and phospholipids fine tune T cell early mechanosensitivity?
Neural Tissue patterning: how tissue mechanics feedbacks on genetically encoded programs
Analysis of embryonic development variability in Parhyale hawaiensis: From embryo registration to variability measurement
Mathias Ramm Haugland (IBDM/LIS)
MitoLearner: deep learning and explainable AI to understand the role of mitochondria genes in cancer cells
Salmonella facing neutrophils: bacterial survival under unconventional reactive species
Functional Heterogeneity of Hippocampal Fast Oscillations for Memory Processing
Physical and structural characterization of the interplay between the cell membranes, actin filaments and Chikungunya protein nsP1
Modeling Neural Circuit Dynamics in Reward-Based Learning and Information Seeking Using Multimodal Brain Data
Deciphering the self-organizing principles governing the cellular composition and growth of tumors
Christopher Mazzerbo (IBDM/CIML)
Quantification and modeling of embryonic lymph node organogenesis at the single cell scale
Piyush Mishra (I2M/Institut Fresnel)
Weakly-supervised inferences of molecular dynamics for fluorescence imaging in physiological environments
Tom Orjollet-Lacomme (Inmed/IRPHE)
What role for effort and time in decision making and motor control during foraging?
Integrating transcription and lineage to define spatiotemporal trajectories of cardiac progenitor cells
Pablo Alejandro Perez Bastia (LAI/IBDM)
Memory driven active instabilities in gastruloids
Characterizing the Growth Dynamics and Spatial Coverage of Drosophila Sensory Neurons
Tanishq Tejaswi (IBDM/Fresnel)
Exploring the Tissue Biomechanics of Intestinal Crypt Fission
Shreelekshmi Rajesh (I2M/CIML/CRCM)
Modeling T Cell activation mechanisms to elucidate the processing of dynamic stimuli
Mirindra Ratsifandri-Hamanana (INMED/INT)
Circuits supporting dynamics transitions in the developing hippocampus
Understanding Early Sharp Waves in the Developing Hippocampus using Computational Modelling
Imprint of mechanical forces on antibody affinity maturation in B cell immune responses
João Pedro Valeriano Miranda (CINaM)
Learning hidden structures in the stochastic dynamics of living systems
Engineers
Lea Chabot - Bioinformatics Engineer
Audrey Comte - Software Development Engineer
Fabrice Dessolis - Mechatronics Engineer
Mai Han Hoang - Image Data Processing & Analysis
Mathias Lechelon - Mechatronics
Thomas Vannier - Bioinformatics Data Analyst
Alumni
Since 2017, talented and innovative scientists have helped us shape CENTURI and collaborate on federating a diverse community and to ensure its commitment to an interdiciplinary approach of Science and Research.
Photography by ©Criscuolo