We are thrilled to welcome Cécile Perrollaz! Our new Technical assistant.
After earning a two-year technological degree and a master’s degree in biology, Cécile developed a deep interest in plants and their quirky ways of adapting to their environment. This curiosity led her to the Umeå Plant Science Centre in Sweden, where she worked in Professor Stephanie Robert’s group to validate pavement cell-related genes in Arabidopsis thaliana using confocal microscopy. In 2022, her adventures took her to Cambodia, where she joined the BRIO team from the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development. Their mission was to study the links between the microbiome and rice (Oryza sativa) resistance to parasitism, particularly by the mischievous nematode Meloidogyne graminicola. After a year in the rice fields and labs (and surviving a few A/C breakdowns), she found herself missing cheese—especially a good raclette in winter! In June 2024, she joined our team as a lab technician.