Jacques Benoit Lecture

Jacques Benoit is a French physician and biologist, considered one of the pioneers of neuroendocrinology. He founded the Société de Neuroendocrinologie Expérimentale (SNE) in 1971, with the aim of “developing fundamental research and exchanges between researchers in the field of vertebrate neuroendocrinology, in particular by organizing symposia, seminars or any other means it deems useful”.

A Jacques Benoit Lecture is given each year by a prestigious member of our community at the SNE colloquium. This year’s reading will be given (in french) by :

Dr Yves Tillet – INRAE Tours-Nouzilly

Lecture Title: Contrôle neuroendocrinien de la reproduction : ce qu’un mouton nous dit

Yves Tillet is a Senior Researcher at INRAE in the Unit of Physiology of Reproduction and Behaviors (INRAE, CNRS, University of Tours).

After completing a PhD in 1986 at the University of Paris 6 (now Sorbonne University) on the neuroanatomy of monoaminergic neurons in sheep, Yves Tillet joined INRA in Nouzilly near Tours, where he studies the neuroendocrine control of reproduction in domestic species, particularly sheep. His research focuses on the impact of steroids on peptide-based (GnRH, Kiss, NPY…) and aminergic neuronal networks involved in reproductive control. He conducts these studies using functional neuroanatomy approaches: immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, hodology, and more recently, in vivo imaging techniques with MRI. His work has resulted in over 120 articles in specialized scientific journals.

In parallel to his research activities, he led a Federative Research Institute in Imaging (IFR135) from 2008 to 2012 and a Federative Research Structure (FED4226) for functional neuroimaging from 2013 to 2023, bringing together nearly 25 teams from the Universities of Tours, Orléans, and Poitiers.

Yves Tillet served as secretary of the SNE from 2000 to 2005, a member of the Scientific Council from 2014 to 2017, and administrator of the website from 2001 to 2023. He chaired the organization of conferences in 2007 and 2019 in Tours, a satellite symposium of the ICN in 2010 on the plasticity of neuroendocrine systems in Tours, and the International School of Neuroendocrinology in 2007 in Seillac. He has also been the editor-in-chief of La Lettre des Neurosciences since 2008.