Angela Giangrande

Angela Giangrande trained in Italy as an undergraduate and obtained her PhD in Strasbourg, where she developed her interests in transcriptional regulation and in the Drosophila melanogaster genetic model. After an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship in the USA, she returned to Strasbourg where she set up her group at the IGBMC, directed by Prof Chambon. She has characterized Drosophila neural stem cells and the glial fate determinant, Glide/Gcm, an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor. As their vertebrate counterpart, Drosophila glia control neuronal development/function and act as vertebrate microglia, macrophages that reshape the nervous system during development and in pathological conditions. Defective glia and microglia are at the basis of severe neural pathologies. The current projects aim at understanding the role of Glide/Gcm and its conserved pathway in the nervous system.
Drosophila provides a unique opportunity to study human diseases and Giangrande’s team has also contributed with two models, Fragile X Mental Retardation and Retinitis Pigmentosa.
As a Directeur de Recherche CNRS, Angela Giangrande has been awarded and coordinated several national and international grants (HFSP, EEC, ANR, FRM, ARC, LIGUE, AFM). She has also been awarded the Franco-Taiwanese International Prize by the Académie des Sciences (2009).

As part of her Fellowship, Angela Giangrande is working on the project Of glia and microglia, from flies to mice.