Institut de la Vision
Paris, France
Alexandra Rebsam, Ph.D., is an INSERM Researcher at the Institut de la Vision in Paris, France. Her research interest is in understanding how proper neural connections are established during brain development. She uses the mouse visual system as a model to decipher the developmental mechanisms linking the development of the retina with its brain connectivity. She is currently focusing on understanding the origin of the visual defects in albinism. She was introduced to albinism during her postdoctoral experience in the laboratory of Dr. Carol Mason at Columbia University, where she studied the consequences of altered crossing at the optic chiasm on retinal axon targeting in a mouse model of albinism. She also contributed to research which demonstrated that delayed neurogenesis leads to altered specification of ventrotemporal retinal ganglion cells in albino mice. She has a broad background in Neuroscience with specific training in developmental neuroscience using histology techniques and precise surgical techniques such as in utero retinal electroporation and ocular injections in mice. Furthermore, by combining tracing techniques with lightsheet microscopy, she can follow 3D retinal projections in the entire mouse brain. She is currently trying to decipher the molecular mechanisms at the origin of the retinal deficits in albinism using various mouse models.