On November 30, 2020, the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation awarded its scientific prizes to twenty researchers whose work contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge with the aim of improving human health. The total value of these prizes is almost 2 million euros.
Through four annual prizes, the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation supports and encourages researchers and their teams at key moments in their careers: the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences, the Bettencourt Coups d'élan Prize for French Research, the ATIP-Avenir program endowment and the Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers.
Marie Manceau, CNRS research director at the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie, is the winner of the Bettencourt Coups d'élan pour la recherche française 2020 prize, for her project on the genetic mechanisms of plumage pattern formation in birds.
Marie Manceau and her team are pioneers in the study of the evolution of plumage pattern formation in birds. Their aim is to understand why these patterns vary so much from one species to another, and how their arrangement is orchestrated from embryonic tissue.
To achieve this, Marie Manceau and her team are testing mathematical models to theoretically reproduce the dynamics involved in setting up these different geometries. By comparing the phenotypes of different avian species, their aim is to find common themes in variation and identify signals that may play a role in the formation of feather bud patterns.
Marie Manceau and her team have made some important discoveries, notably concerning the formation of the periodic color stripes that decorate the plumage of chicks.
In particular, the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation prize will finance the acquisition of a confocal microscope: a cutting-edge technology that is crucial for imaging the skin cells of bird embryos in vivo.
