Mateusz Trylinski, a post-doctoral fellow in cell biology, received the 2020 Bettencourt Young Researchers Prize for his work on cell coordination during organogenesis.

Cell communication and organogenesis

Plant and animal development is based on complex biological processes responsible for harmonious growth from the embryonic to the adult stage.

Mateusz Trylinski's project focuses on cell coordination during organogenesis. He studies how they communicate with each other by secreting molecules to adapt their behavior and acquire new cellular forms and functions. His goal is to understand the role of inter-cellular dialogue in organ formation to eventually explain how the same organ can be formed in a reproducible way, in size and function, from one individual to another.

The fruit fly as a model

His research model is the fruit fly, whose body is covered with bristles that sense mechanical stimuli. They offer a unique opportunity to study the organogenesis process in a living animal with great precision. The goal is to determine the nature of the molecules that coordinate the behavior of the various cells forming the sensory bristles.

Dr. Trylinski hopes to gain more insight into how cells adapt their growth and shape and enable healthy organs to form despite genetic or environmental disruptions.

Mateusz Trylinski in a few words

Mateusz Trylinski specializes in developmental cell biology. He graduated from the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon before earning a master's degree in the history and philosophy of science from Université Paris Diderot.

He wrote his thesis under the supervision of François Schweisguth at the Pasteur Institute. His work focuses on cell coordination in the fruit fly. For his Ph.D., he combined genetic experiments with live cell imaging technology to show the importance of cellular dialogue in the destiny of cells.

For his four-year post-doctoral fellowship, he is deepening his research on functional morphogenesis in Dr. Buzz Baum's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at University College London, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers

Created in 1990, the Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers is one of the first initiatives of the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller. Until 2021, this prize was awarded each year to 14 young doctors of science or doctors of medicine, to enable them to carry out their post-doctoral stay in the best foreign laboratories. 349 young researchers were distinguished. The prize endowment was €25,000.

All the award-winners