01 Mar Congratulations Igor Coqueiro!

On the 31st of January 2023, we received great news from Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA). After defending his thesis, our Early Stage Researcher (ESR) Igor Coqueiro was granted his PhD diploma! Igor is the second OrganoVIR ESR to graduate from their PhD studies (the first being Asli Aybike Dogan, who graduated on the 28th of October 2022). 

After three years of training in OrganoVIR, Igor defended his thesis (titled ‘Infection of human blood-brain barrier cells in vitro by different subtypes of enterovirus A71 and its consequences on permeability and particles release’). Under the supervision of Jean-Luc Bailly at UCA, Igor developed a physiologically relevant model of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB) to study the neurotropism and pathogenicity of Enterovirus. Igor’s research focused using human organoids to investigate how EVs cross the BBB.  

With his PhD diploma, Igor aims to continue conducting research in the field of organoid technology. In the future, he hopes to use cerebral organoids to study the inflammatory aspects of neurological diseases. He also expressed how the three pillars of OrganoVIR’s training programme, particularly the Personal Development Plan, prepared him for his future roles: “My training at OrganoVIR showed me that a lot of changes may occur in the process of conducting research, but this can be tackled by focusing on my purpose and defining clear strategies to carry on with my research”. 

We are incredibly elated to hear that our training programme had a positive impact on Igor’s growth as a scientist. We hope that he will continue to use the tools that he has learned during his training in his future roles. We look forward to seeing him thrive and contribute to Enterovirus research using human organoid models!