Affiliation: Sorbonne University, UMR-S 1270 INSERM, Institut du Fer à Moulin

Dr. Roumier received a PhD in cellular immunology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. Afterwards, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in neurobiology at the Institute of Biology of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS) in Paris where she participated in the first studies which unraveled the potential role of microglial dysfunctions and microglial gene mutations in the ontogeny of developmental brain disorders. At the end of 2008, she was recruited as an assistant professor to Sorbonne University in Paris and joined the “Institut du Fer à Moulin” (IFM), a research institute dedicated to neuroscience. There, she developed an original research line centered on the control of microglia by serotonin. Since 2019, she has led the team, “Serotonin, Microglia and Plasticity”, with Dr. Maroteaux at the IFM. Her research projects focus on the acute and long-term effects of serotonin on microglia, including morphological changes and regulation of microglia development and on understanding how disruption of this regulation impacts on neuronal wiring, synaptic plasticity, and behavior. To this aim, techniques ranging from molecular and cellular biology, pharmacology, to 2-photon imaging and behavior are used. This research can shed light on the role of microglia as effectors of the neuromodulator, serotonin, notably in the context of psychiatric disorders which very often involve perturbations of the serotonergic system.