Franck Oury

The scientific career of Franck Oury has been focused in neurobiology from a neuro-developmental to a neuro-physiological aspect. After obtaining his PhD at the IGBMC (Strasbourg, France) by identifying novel key transcription factors for the development of the neuronal sensory/motor system in the brain and contributing to the etiology of various neuro-developmental and craniofacial syndromes, he next oriented his career toward a more physiological aspect of the neurobiology. He joined Columbia University-medical center studying how our body may influence brain cognition and metabolic functions. His findings provided novel fundamental insight into the roadmap of leptin control of energy balance and bone physiology by the hypothalamus. His results also revealed unsuspected crosstalk between brain and other organs, in particular demonstrating that bone-derived molecules (i.e Osteocalcin) promotes neuronal homeostasis and adult neurogenesis influencing brain development and cognition. Knowing that these factors decline during aging, together with the important prevalence between osteoporosis and cognitive decline during normal aging, he next showed that these factors are essential to foster cognitive fitness, by contributing to the maintenance of neuronal homeostasis throughout life. These works constituted a recognized breakthrough in the field of neuroendocrinology, redefining the importance of systemic factors for the control of brain functions, development and aging. In 2015, he joined the Institut Necker Enfants-Malades (Paris), heading a research team supported by the ATIP-Avenir and getting a tenure position INSERM (CR1). He was then promoted Research director in 2019. Building on his interdisciplinary training, his team study the importance of the hormonal homeostasis for the control of brain functions and aging, by i) exploring the involvement of novel endocrine/paracrine pathways in the central nervous system; ii) studying the causality between hormonal imbalance and the decline of brain cognitive and metabolic functions during aging, iii) characterizing the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating the hormonal regulation of brain functions. His group has developed an integrative approach that combines mouse genetics, behavioral/metabolic analyses, viral based manipulation by brain stereotactic injections, optogenetics, proteomics, and cellular and molecular methodologies. Studying the impact of the hormonal factors on neuronal proteostasis, his work reveals a novel physiological role of the autophagy machinery in neurons that mediate the communication between hormonal factors and neurons, which is a prerequisite for the maintenance of neuronal plasticity and cognitive fitness. He also demonstrated that the decline in autophagy levels during aging is responsible, at least in part, for the age-related cognitive decline and contribute to the proof-of-concept that targeting autophagy could be a potent anti-aging approach to treat age-related cognitive disorders and associated diseases. He is now interested in studying the role of other cellular process (i.e senescence) and their interplay with hormonal factors for the regulation of brain functions and aging. His overall scientific objectives and his expertise in neuroendocrinology and brain aging are highly complementary to the other members of this consortium for the completion of this ambitious project.