Olivier Griso

29-year-old PhD with great interest in biotechnologies and innovation. I use my strong curiosity, thinking and persistence to achieve the objectives and push projects forwards efficiently. I have been leading my PhD project into drug discovery in a rare disease, by developing a whole new drug screening strategy on an innovative cellular model.

I graduated in September 2020 with a Ph.D. from the University of Strasbourg in molecular and cellular biology applied to a rare neurological disease. 

I have pursued my Ph.D. in the team of Dr. H. Puccio at IGBMC (Srasbourg). My project was to investigate a rare genetic disease called Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), through the generation and characterization of a new cellular model based on primary cultures of mouse DRG sensory neurons. With a desire to push my thesis project towards drug discovery, I have been designing a mid-throughput strategy to screen a 1500 compounds library on this complex model. This was far from being a straightforward development, since I was working on primary neurons with all the caveats linked to primary cultures from embryonic stages. To conduct this ambitious project, I had to determine the culture conditions compatible with mid-throughput screening, to develop a robust readout strategy based on high-content imaging for mitochondrial phenotype and cell morphology. After multiple optimizations, I was able to conduct a screen of 1500 compounds on this complex model, with 18 hits that passed a dose-response curve and are currently under further investigation in Dr. Puccio new laboratory. The screening strategy revealed itself very convincing and allowed to set-up a collaboration with a major pharmaceutical group based in Boston, USA. 

During my Ph.D., I also had several side projects, among which generating new cellular models by introducing point mutations through CRISPR/Cas9 technology in immortalized cell lines or neural progenitors (using flow cytometry-based clone isolation). I have developed and mastered several techniques: primary neuronal cultures including in complex labware (96 and 394 well plates, 96-well Seahorse plates, microfluidic chambers), AAV transductions, mammalian cells engineering (CRISPR/Cas9), FACS, confocal microscopy, high-content imaging on automated platform, culture and workflow automatization of the neuronal model, handling of fully automated workstation, molecular biology techniques (Western blot, ELISA, RT-qPCR, gene cloning, enzymatic measurements), Seahorse Analysis for mitochondrial respiration.