Helene Castel
University of Rouen, UK
Biography
Helene Castel started to develop different variants of the electrophysiological technique at the university of Rouen in the laboratory of Dr Vaudry (U413 Inserm) and biochemical approaches to give a comprehensive view of modulation of the GABAA receptor-channel function by interacting proteins. She received her PhD in Neurosciences, Molecular and Cell Biology at the Rouen University in 2000, and then spent 2 years on a post-doctoral position in Pr Colquhoun’s laboratory at University College of London, UK. There, she has developed fast-concentration-jump techniques to mimic electrical fast synaptic inputs on recombinant NMDA receptors and acquired expertise in molecular biology through mutagenesis of NMDA receptor subunits. In 2002, she obtained a permanent position as chargée de Recherche (CR) at the French National Institute of Health (Inserm) and University of Rouen. In 2010, she became group Leader “Astrocyte and Vascular Niche†and since 2015, she is co-head of the international platform “Cancer and Cognition†under the French North-West Canceropole. She develops projects based on vasoactive and chemokine G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in tumor brain, brain vascular physiopathology and on cognitive dysfunctions induced by cancer and targeted therapies.