The Masters internship – potentially leading to a PhD project – will start to explore and compare the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that drive leg development and regeneration in the crustacean model Parhyale hawaiensis. Our team has established transgenic, live imaging and genomics approaches to study leg regeneration in Parhyale (Paris et al. 2022). Although regeneration yields faithful replicas of the original legs (Almazan et al. 2022), the transcriptional and cellular dynamics associated with leg development and regeneration are different (Sinigaglia et al. 2022 and unpublished), suggesting that identical structures could be generated by distinct mechanisms during development and regeneration. Our project will uncover GRNs that underpin leg development and regeneration, and compare them to determine to what extent developmental GRNs are re-used during regeneration.

Two projects can be envisaged in the context of this Masters internship, depending on the candidate’s skills and interests:
     1) Determining genome-wide profiles of chromatin accessibility and gene expression, at single-cell resolution, during leg development and/or regeneration in Parhyale. In this project, the intern will be trained in generating and analysing single-cell datasets in the Averof lab (IGFL Lyon, France).
     2) Determining the DNA binding preferences of Parhyale transcription factors involved in leg development and regeneration. Here, the intern will receive training on in silico prediction and in vitro validation of transcription factor binding preferences in the Sebé-Pedrós lab (CRG Barcelona, Spain).
     Both projects will involve experimental and computational work. 

The IGFL and CRG teams are both international and use English as their main working language. Interns will be fully integrated in the scientific life of the host team(s) and may have the opportunity to pursue this project further, on a 3-year PhD fellowship in the Averof lab.

Please send enquiries, motivation letter and CV to mathilde.paris@ens-lyon.fr