Nicolas Rembert

During morphogenesis, cells integrate chemical and physical signals to organize collectively and acquire complex shapes and functions. The intestine is an essential organ for nutrient absorption and protection against pathogens and possesses a folded epithelial structure, increasing its luminal area. The mechanisms leading to this pattern formation are still under investigation. Organoids are in-vitro reconstitution system and are useful tools to explore mechanisms of morphogenesis and regeneration, however, they currently lack the highly folded villi structure observed in-vivo. Previous publications from our group showed epithelium buckling under confinement as well as a regulation of proliferation. In this project we aim at understanding how intestinal stem cells collectively form a highly organised tissue and if an in-vitro system can recapitulate villus shape formation. I will use alginate encapsulation to study the effect of different mechanical cues, among which compressive stress, on intestinal stem cell proliferation and differentiation and I will develop a pipeline visualising differentiation patterns using a combination of Microscopy Imaging and Image analysis tools. 

I started my PhD in the Roux lab in September 2023 after obtaining my Master’s degree in Life Sciences Engineering from EPFL. I did my Master’s thesis in January 2023 in the Roux Lab during which I developed a standardised analysis pipeline to extract nematic properties of cells in tissues and produced a large “nematic dataset” comprising a dozen of cell types.  

After I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences engineering from EPFL in September 2020 I realised my first experience in research in the Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique de l’X (LadhyX, Ecole Polytechnique, France) where I studied the permeability of a Blood-brain-barrier model using a microvessel-on-chip system.