Meet one of our 2025 Fellowship recipients, Louison Daussy, Msc! A fascination with the brain and central nervous system (CNS) disorders, sparked by the Téléthon event on French TV, inspired Louison Daussy to pursue a BSc in Life Sciences at Sorbonne University, focusing on neuroscience. During this time, they completed a voluntary internship in Capucine Trollet’s group, optimizing immunolabeling techniques and using confocal microscopy to study oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

Their MSc in Integrative Biology and Physiology further developed their expertise. During an internship with Fabio Marti, they explored reinforcement learning in addiction through optogenetics. A subsequent internship under Mario Gomes-Pereira at the Myology Research Center focused on neuronal defects in DM1, leading to significant findings on axon structure and vesicle transport abnormalities.

The MDF fellowship will support their PhD project “DM1 Neuropathology: From Neuronal Morphology and Axonal Transport to the Reversion of Brain Disease” at the Centre de Recherche en Myologie in Paris, on DM1 neuronal pathology. Louison Daussy aspires to an international research career advancing DM1 therapies.

Click here to learn more about MDF's research funding opportunities and prior grant recipients.