Laurent Blanchoin is a researcher in cytoskeleton biochemistry and co-leader of the CytomorphoLab team at the Cell & Plant Physiology Laboratory of the Interdisciplinary Research Institut of Grenoble.
"I am passionate about the dynamic processes that underlie living systems. In our team, we have technological tools to scan cells and see how they can probe their environment, adapt their shape, move, divide. To perform these functions, cells have a proteinic "skeleton" (the cytoskeleton) that spontaneously, continuously and rapidly assembles and disassembles in the form of complex architectures. By reconstructing, in particular, a biomimetic cellular skeleton from purified proteins allowing the self-organization of the cytoskeleton
in vitro, we can decipher the organizational laws that define the architecture of cells.