CV Science

Maria Cecilia Angulo PhD in Neuroscience

Course and current status

  Present position

Research Director (DR1) at CNRS and Team leader of the group: “Interactions between neurons and oligodendroglia in myelination and myelin repair”; Institut de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences de Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Univ. Paris Descartes, Paris, France (Director: Thierry Galli)

  Previous positions

• [2011-2017] Research Director (DR2) at CNRS; Team leader of the group: “Physiology of NG2 cells”, Neurophysiology and New Microscopies Laboratory, INSERM U1128, Univ. Paris Descartes, Paris, France (Director: Serge Charpak)

• [2002-2010] Scientist at CNRS (CR2 and CR1), Laboratory of Neurophysiology and New Microscopies, INSERM U603, CNRS UMR8154, Univ. Paris Descartes, Paris, France (Director: Serge Charpak)

• [2000-2001] Postdoctoral training; Dept. of Experimental Biomedical Science; Padova, Italy (Directors: Tullio Pozzan and Giorgio Carmignoto).

  Education

• [2010] Habilitation to Supervise Research (HDR); Univ. Paris Descartes.

• [1996-1999] PhD Thesis; Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie and Lab. of Neurobiology, ESPCI, CNRS UMR7637; highest honors 

• [1995-1996] DEA; Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Lab. of Neurobiology, ESPCI, CNRS UMR 7637; highest honor

• [1989-1995] Undergraduate diploma in Biology, National University of Colombia, Bogotà (Ranked 1^st at the faculty of Sciences).

  Fellowships, awards and honors

• [2021-2024] “Equipe FRM 2021” award from the French Research Medical Foundation (FRM, France)

• [2018] Recognition as a high quality reviewer of The Journal of Neuroscience

• [2016] Selected team by an international scientific advisory board to integrate the new Institut of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP, Dir. Thierry Galli). The team moved in September 2017.

• [2016-2019] “Equipe FRM 2015” award from the French Research Medical Foundation (FRM, France)

• [2014-2017] “Prime d'encadrement doctoral et de recherche” from CNRS

• [2007-2010] Young investigator grant from ANR

• [2005-2007] Young Investigator Award from NARSAD, USA

• [2000-2001] HFSPO postdoctoral fellowship

• [2000] EMBO postdoctoral fellowship (withdrawn since HFSPO accepted)

• [2000] Best PhD thesis award, French Society for Neuroscience

• [1995-1999] PhD fellowship from Colciencias (Colombia) and from FRM (France)

• [1995] Award for the best student of the Faculty of Sciences in 1995, National University of Colombia

  Institutional responsabilities

• [From 2022] Member of the INSERM Scientific Committee of Neuroscience

• [From 2022] Associated editor of the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Science

• [2017-2022] Member of the scientific committee of the Fondation pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau (FRC).

• [2014-2021] Scientific committee of the “French Club of glial cells”, France

• [2021] Member of the peer-review panel of the european program ERA-Net Neuron (call on Transnational Research Projects on Neurodevelopmental Disorders)

• [2019-2023] Elected Treasurer of the French Society of Neuroscience; member of the office and administrative council of the society

• [2018] Member of the international “in-depth evaluation panel” to select a director for a Center supported by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, South Korea

• [2017-2018] Member of the scientific committee of Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), Section : Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience

•  [2017-2020] Representative of researchers/professors in the Administrative Council of the Ecole des Neurosciences de Paris (ENP)

• [2013-2017] Representative of INSERM U1128 in the scientific committee of Neuroscience Department (CNRS FR3636), University Paris Descartes, Paris, France

• [2012-2016]    Elected member of the Administrative Council of the Faculty of Fundamental and Biomedical Sciences, University Paris Descartes, Paris, France

Scientific summary

 MC Angulo is an electrophysiologist with experience in optical methods and molecular analysis. Her scientific interests have been mostly related to the study of the interactions between neurons and different cell types of the brain. During her post-doc; she established the role of neuron-astrocyte communication in regulating cortical microcirculation. Then, she obtained a permanent position at CNRS and worked on the role of gliotransmitters released by astrocytes in the modulation of neuronal activity. Since 2011, she heads a team that explores the interactions between neurons and oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Her team identified for the first time transient synapses between GABAergic interneurons and oligodendrocyte precusor cells (OPCs) during cortical development and has made important contributions in the field of neuronal activity-dependent (re)myelination. Her projects aim to understand how neuron-OPC communication contributes to cortical maturation and circuit formation during the development and how neuron-OL lineage cell interactions influence myelin repair in diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis. She uses a multidisciplinary approach combining patch-clamp recordings, advanced optical methods, optogenetics and immunohistochemistry in different transgenic mouse models.

  Recent selected publications

Maas D, Angulo MC (2021) Can enhancing neuronal activity improve myelin repair in Multiple Sclerosis? 15:645240

Mozafari S, Starost L, Manot-Saillet B, Garcia-Diaz B, Xu YKT, Roussel D, Levy MJF, Antel JP, Martino G, Angulo MC, Kuhlmann T, Baron-Van Evercooren A (2020) Multiple sclerosis iPS-derived oligodendroglia conserve their intrinsic properties to functionally interact with axons and glia in vivo. Sci. Adv. 6(49):eabc6983

Benamer N. Vidal M, Balia M, Angulo MC (2020) Myelination of parvalbumin interneurons shapes the function of sensory cortical inhibitory circuits. Nat. Commun. 11(1):5151

Riva M*, Genescu I*, Habermacher H*, Orduz D, Ledonne F, Rijli FM, Lopez-Bendito G, Coppola E, Garel S^#, Angulo MC^#, Pierani A^# (2019) Activity-dependent elimination of Cajal-Retzius cells regulates the wiring of upper cortical layers. eLife 8:e50503. *Co-first authors; ^#Co-last authors

Habermacher C, Angulo MC^#, Benamer N^#. (2019) Glutamate versus GABA in neuron-oligodendroglia communication. Glia 67(11):2092-2106. ^#Co-last authors 

Orduz D*, Benamer N*, Ortolani D*, Coppola E, Vigier L, Pierani A, Angulo MC (2019) Developmental cell death regulates lineage-related interneuron-oligodendroglia functional clusters and oligodendrocyte homeostasis. Nat. Commun. 10(1):4249

Ortiz FC*, Habermacher C*, Graciarena M, Houry P-Y, Nishiyama A, Nait Oumesmar B, Angulo MC (2019) Neuronal activity in vivo enhances functional myelin repair. JCI Insight 4(9): e123434. *Co-first authors

Remaud S, Ortiz FC, Perret-Jeanneret M, Aigrot MS, Gothié JD, Fekete C, Kvárta-Papp Z, Gereben B, Langui D, Lubetzki C, Angulo MC, Zalc B, Demeneix B. (2017) Transient hypothyroidism promotes functional brain remyelination in vivo. eLife 6:e29996

Balia M, Benamer N, Angulo MC (2017) A specific GABAergic synapse onto oligodendrocyte precursors does not regulate cortical oligodendrogenesis. Glia 65(11):1821-1832

Ledonne F, Orduz D, Mercier J, Vigier L, Grove EA, Tissir F, Angulo MC, Pierani A^#, Coppola E^#. (2016) Targeted inactivation of Bax reveals subtype-specific mechanism of Cajal-Retzius neuron death in the postnatal cerebral cortex. Cell Rep 17(12) 3133. ^#Co-last authors