Stéphane Zaffran, Aix Marseille University, Marseille

Biography

Stéphane Zaffran is a Director of Research at INSERM with a background in developmental biology, and his work focuses on the genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying abnormal heart development that leads to congenital heart defects (CHD). After training in fruit fly heart development during his PhD and postdoc, he joined Pr. Margaret Buckingham’s lab at the Pasteur Institute to study mammalian heart formation, where he identified the distinct contributions of second heart field (SHF) progenitors. His research investigates how disruptions in SHF development, particularly involving retinoic acid (RA) signaling and Hox gene function, contribute to CHD, using models like Aldh1a2 transgenic mice and gastruloids. Their current project focuses on the contribution of the pharyngeal region to heart formation. This project aims to define critical signal exchanges in the mouse pharyngeal region and to determine the cell-autonomous and non-autonomous mechanisms by which RA controls pharyngeal and cardiac development.