Marie Manceau Lab
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Marie Manceau
PI
Marie is CNRS Research Director (DR1). She is interested in studying the formation and evolution of patterns in the skin. She completed her PhD in avian developmental biology in the laboratory of Pr. Marcelle at the University of Marseille (France) in 2007, and then moved as a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Hoekstra at Harvard University, where she studied the developmental bases of color pattern variation in rodents. Since 2013, she is a Research Group Leader at the Collège de France (CIRB). Marie also works as a naturalist guide in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Carole Desmarquet Trin-Dinh
Research engineer
After a first experience in a private company, Carole moved on to academic research and got recruited by the INSERM. She worked at the Pasteur Institute to develop a papillomavirus vaccine (now on the market) in the laboratory of Gérard Orth. In 1994, she oriented her focus towards developmental biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris, contributing to studies on the genetic control of the central and peripheral nervous system in vertebrates performed in the laboratory of Pr. Charnay. In 2017, she made again a bold carrier move: motivated by the prospect of studying patterning in another organ (the skin), she joined our team to complete her technical skills in developmental biology: after rats, mice and rabbits, Carole now studies skin lineage in our dear avian models!
Nadia De Mota-Picco
Lab technician
Nadia holds a technical degree (BTS) in biotechnology. She joined the Collège de France in 1995 in the team of Dr.Llorens-Cortès, where she worked on developing a therapeutic approach to treat resistant arterial hypertension and on the physiological effects of apelin. She joined the Manceau team in September 2022. She takes care of laboratory logistics and studies the expression of candidate genes in the avian skin.
Romain Girard
PhD student
Romain performed his Master studies at the Sorbonne University of Paris. Curious to work with various models, he studied the neurodevelopment of jellyfish and the endocrine systems of amphibians and fish during his Master. He then decided to pursue a PhD in developmental biology, which he started in the lab in October 2023. His project aims at uncovering the mechano-chemical bases of species-specific feather array geometry. Straight from the get go, Romain performed field work and hard-core imaging, plunging directly into the core of our research approaches.
Paul Gennotte
PhD student
After obtaining his bachelor's degree in Genetics in the European Magister of Genetics (MEG) at the Université Paris Cité, Paul studied dog behavior at Cambridge University. For his Master at EVOGEM (a joint program between ENS, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne université, Paris Saclay and MNHN), he switched to birds and joined the team in January 2025. His project, performed in collaboration with Lambert/Achaz team at the CIRB, aims at identifying conserved color domains across the avian phylogeny using a combination of phenotypic studies, phylogeny analyses, and mathematical modeling.
Elio Escamilla Vega
Postdoc
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Elio completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön (Germany), where he initially investigated how new genes evolve and integrate into pre-existing pathways to give rise to evolutionary innovations. Curious to explore new model organisms, he then turned to the small-spotted catshark as a representative chondrichthyan species, combining single-cell transcriptomics, synchrotron-radiation micro-computed tomography, and high-resolution imaging to build a comprehensive atlas of catshark development and investigate how lineage-specific traits emerge. He joined the Manceau Lab in February 2026, where he studies how intrinsic positional identity and local signaling shape skin patterning and development in birds.
Pietro Longo
Hollanda de Mello
Postdoc
Pietro is a Brazilian evolutionary biologist and bioinformatician investigating the genomic, cellular, and developmental processes underlying animal color pattern diversity. After completing his undergraduate and master's degrees in ecology in Brazil, he studied for his PhD sex-linked traits and local adaptation in Anolis lizards at the University of Kansas. He then pursued postdoctoral work at the University of Virginia, combining single-cell sequencing, genomic analyses of 'fancy' guppy strains, and 4D confocal microscopy to dissect the mechanisms underlying the establishment of non-repetitive color patterns in guppies. He joined the Manceau lab in March 2026 to study how striped patterns evolve across avian clades. His project merges dry-lab bioinformatics and single-cell 'omics with interspecies tissue micro-manipulation.
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
María Castro Scherianz
PhD student
María performed her Master studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her undergrad and first year of master confirmed her interest in developmental biology through internships in which she worked on lab mice. For her second year of master degree she decided to switch gears and get to know birds! After two rotations in the lab and an internship in Marseille with the team of Pierre-François Lenne, she started her PhD in September 2022. Her project aimed at characterising species-specific geometry of the feather follicle array according to body location: she linked natural variation to differences in mechanical properties of the developing skin tissue. María now teaches life and earth sciences as a Professeur agrégée in Mantes-la-Jolie.
Coline Hermine
PhD student
After obtaining a double bachelor degree in Biology and Philosophy at Sorbonne University, Coline chose to enrol in the ENS/PSL master of biology (IMALIS). At first interested in evolutionary biology, Coline discovered developmental biology during her 2020 internship at the Misaki Marine Biological Station of Tokyo University. There, she worked on post-embryonic development of Acoelomorpha. In January 2021 she joined our team to study the formation of color patterns : she dissected the role of Agouti in the temporal control of periodic striped patterns in galliformes and ratites. Coline now works as a field ornithologist and is looking for jobs in environmental conservation!
Leeloo Marmain
M1 student
Leeloo originally trained as a chemist: she holds a bachelor in chemistry specialized in organic synthesis, having performed two internships on catalysis at ICMUB and IRCELYON. She then switched gears to study biology, and ijoined the Master of life science of Lyon University. After practical training in zevrafish behavior, Leeloo joined the lab for a two-months internship to study stripe pattern formation in poultry birds.
Arghyadip Mukherjee
Research assistant
Arghyadip (Argo) is a theoretical physicist. By combining insights from mechanics, geometry and cell biology, he works to understand how complex shapes arise in multicellular systems. He worked on hydrodynamic effects in oogenesis during his PhD at MPI-Dresden, and in March 2022, he became an independent postdoctoral fellow at Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris, where he held the QBio Junior Research Chair. He worked with us to understand how physical forces shape feather follicle emergence. He now leads his own research group at the University of Geneva, where he continues to collaborate with our lab!
Julia Danese
License student
Julia is currently a student in a biomedical sciences degree program at the Université Paris Cité. She performed a 6 month internship in the lab, studying the molecular control of region-specific identity in the embryonic skin of poultry birds.
Pierre Cabirol
M1 Student
Pierre obtained a bachelor degree in biology at the university of Montpellier and joined the International Master of Life Sciences of Lyon University in 2022. After following a developmental biology class where Marie presented the work of the lab, he applied for a two-month internship (bravely facing countless administrative issues ;). He worked with María on the cellular events shaping the production of feather patterns in several species of birds.
Hélène Servas
M2 student
After performing genomics work on human pathologies, Hélène got interested in evolutionary biology and studied cat pigmentation at the Jacques Monod Institute of Paris. She then joined our team in January 2022 for her double Master in Genetics and Biotechnology, respectively at the University of Paris cité and at the Bicocca University of Milan, to work on the colour of... cats prays! (i.e., birds). Her project involved surveying natural variation in colour domains across the bird phylogeny. Hélène works is now lab manager in the team of E. Fabre and P. Lesage at the Saint Louis Institute. She also continues to thrive as a science outreach enthusiast; she organises the fun and lively "Pint of Science" sessions, where one can learn about fantastic research while enjoying a drink ;)
Eddy Cialec
Animal Care
Eddy maintained the 100 bird colony, making sure animals were well-fed, breeding and happy!
Camille Curantz
PhD student/Postdoc
Camille joined the lab in January 2016 as part of her second year of Master's rotation student to study the origin of color domains in zebra finches using lineage techniques such as quail-zebra finch grafts and long-term electroporation. During her PhD, she describing the cell and tissue dynamics occurring during the formation of plumage macro- and micro-patterns. She became our "graft master" and developed the use of comparative imaging in cultured skin tissues of various species of Ratites, Galliformes, and Penguins! Camille defended her PhD on October 5th 2020, and after a short postdoc in the lab, moved on to Uri Frank's lab at Galway University, where she studied hydra development. She is now an INSERM researcher in the lab of Marie Breau, at Jussieu University!
Nicolas Haupaix
Postdoc
Nicolas completed his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Yasuo at Nice University (Marine research station of Villefranche-sur-Mer). He characterized the function of Ephrin signaling pathways during neural fate specification and pigments cells formation in Ascidians. Nicolas joined the laboratory as a postdoc in February 2015: he studied the developmental regulation of periodic patterning in juveniles of galliformes and Ratites. After a postdoc with Jochen Rink at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical chemistry, Nicolas joined the IRCAN Institute in Nice to study pattern formation in invertebrates. Nowadays, Nicolas continues to study pattern formation as a Maître de Conférence at the Roscoff Marine Station!
Magdalena Hidalgo
Postdoc
Magdalena received her Ph.D. degree in 2011 from the Paris XIII University. She was advised by Pr. Beaudry in the laboratory of Pr. Richalet and in close collaboration with Pr. Darribère, and studied muscle differentiation in hypoxia in xenopus. She then worked during two years as a Research Assistant Lecturer at Paris V University, before joining the laboratory of Dr. Perron at Paris-Sud University for a first postdoc, where she focused on retina regeneration in amphibia. Magdalena joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in Febrary 2015 where she adapted her micromanipulation skills from her previous developmental studies in amphibia to work on the origin of positional factors shaping large color domains in zebra finches. We miss her skills as much as her smiles everyday!
Richard Bailleul
PhD student/Postdoc
Richard studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Rennes where he passed his agrégation in mathematics. He performed a Master in Mathematics applied to Life Sciences (Paris-Sud University) and a PhD co-advised by Marie Manceau, Jonathan Touboul and Benoît Perthame (UPMC). He conceived models describing developmental mechanisms underlying the formation of color and appendage patterns in birds. After a short postdoc in the lab, Richard joined as a postdoctoral fellow the laboratory of A. Ikmi (EMBL Heidelberg). Richard currently holds the prestigious qBio Junior Research Chair at the ENS Paris.
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Pierre Galipot
PhD Student
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Pierre studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon where he obtained an agrégation in biology and geology. He then got familiar to pigmentation biology of colouration during an internship in Haruhiko Fujiwara's laboratory at the University of Tokyo in 2014. There, he studied the formation of color patterns in the skin of silkworms. He carried on with a Master in biology and complex systems and started his PhD in the lab in october 2018. Pierre studied the role of skin growth on the formation of striped, periodic color patterns in the dorsum of ratites and Galliformes, using both mathematical modelling and micro-manipulation, and experimental developmental biology, taking advantage in particular of electroporation and the production of skin explants. He currently performs a PhD at the MNHN Paris.
Marie Ladner
Animal Care
Marie maintained the 100 bird colony, making sure animals are well-fed, breeding and happy!
Nicole Quenech'Du
Engineer
Nicole worked as a laboratory technician in hospitals and biotech companies until 1996, where she was recruited as a research engineer at the Collège de France. There, she first integrated the team of Pr. Berthoz where she performed histological studies, and after obtaining her EPHE diploma (high practice studies) in 1999 she joined the neuro-imaging platform. She became its supervisor from 2000 to 2005, and as such, contributed to the development of the imaging technical facility of the Center. She then redirected her career and integrated research teams, sharing her time between our laboratory and that of our dear microbiologists neighbors (i.e., Dr. Olivier Espeli lab). Nicole retired in 2025, but stops by from time to time to say hi!
Thanh-Lan Gluckman
Postdoc
Thanh-Lan is interested in studying the mechanisms shaping the evolution of animals forms and how diversity is constrained by developmental processes in bird plumage patterns using multidisciplinary methods, from embryology to evolutionary modeling. She completed her PhD in evolutionary biology in the laboratory of Dr. Mundy (Cambridge University) in 2014 and then moved to the laboratory of Dr. Thomas (Sheffield University) where she designed digital photography methods to study the coloration of 10000 species of birds in collaboration with Pr. Endler (Deakin University). She completed a one year postdoc in the Manceau laboratory in 2015 to examine how positional factors generate region-specific differences in various species of songbirds of the Estrildidae family.
Samantha Beck
Engineer (IE)
Samantha obtained her License and Master I in bioengineering at the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse in the South of France. She has worked since then as an Assistant engineer and laboratory technician in several public research institutions (Claudus Régaud Institute (Toulouse), Tenon Hospital, Georges Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP) and Vision's Intitute (Paris)) and pharmaceutical companies (Sanofi, Servier). She has contributed to biomedical research on cancer as well as kidney and vision diseases and fundamental scientific projects related to cell and molecular biology. She has thereby developed a broad palette of technical skills. She managed all technical aspects of the laboratory and supervised the maintenance of the bird facility. Samantha is now a lab manager at Cambridge University.
Julia Neguer
M2 Student
As the first member of the Manceau lab, Julia started working on colour patterning in Estrildid finches, helping establishing the system and the animal facility!