FANI KOUKOULI

I graduated as a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where I then got a Master of Science in Biotechnology and Molecular Diagnosis specializing in neurodegenerative diseases. In 2012, I was admitted with a fellowship to the Pasteur Paris University International Doctoral Program (PPU) in the Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Uwe Maskos. During my PhD, I investigated the role of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in prefrontal cortex spontaneous neuronal activity and significantly contributed to unmask new pharmacological pathways for reversing cognitive deficits in psychiatric diseases. In a major study, I identified how a human polymorphism linked to nicotine addiction and schizophrenia contributes to reduced brain activity. For my PhD, I received the 2017 thesis award “Gandy” specializing in Science of the Chancellery of the Universities of Paris in Sorbonne. During a first post-doctoral training at the Pasteur Institute, I focused on the impairments of the functional neuronal activity in Alzheimer’s disease and showed that distinct nicotinic receptors are an early target of the amyloid beta peptide. I then joined the team of Dr. Alberto Bacci at the Paris Brain Institute (ICM) as a post-doctoral fellow. My research there focused on the role of an elusive inhibitory neuron type (CB1 interneuron) in primary and secondary cortices and its role in locomotion. I am currently a Group Leader at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP). My group's interest is to study the cholinergic modulation of cortical inhibitory circuits in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders during cognitive processes. For my scientific achievements, I received the Biomedical Science Research award UNAFAM 2017 from the French Ministry of Health in Paris, the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science 2017 award, the Young Scientists Prize 2020 of the Fondation des Treilles and the FRM amorçage de jeunes équipes 2022 award.