Sara Bizzotto

Sara Bizzotto is an Inserm Principal Investigator/Group Leader at Institut Imagine, part of Sorbonne University. She completed her PhD in Genetics and Neurodevelopment at Sorbonne University (2016) under Dr. Fiona FRANCIS, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School (USA) under Prof. Christopher A. WALSH and at Institut du Cerveau (ICM) in Paris under Dr. Stéphanie BAULAC. Her research focuses on somatic mosaicism's role in neurodevelopment, leveraging single-cell sequencing and computational biology to map cell lineages in the human central nervous system (CNS) and investigate neurodevelopmental disorders.

Key collaborations include work with Necker Children’s Hospital to study pediatric brain disorders like cortical malformations and tumors. Her lab employs advanced techniques such as single-cell (multi)omics, mathematical modeling, and DNA sequencing to address unresolved genetic causes of CNS pathologies and improve clinical outcomes.

Publications highlight breakthroughs in using somatic variants for lineage tracing, somatic mutation patterns in aging neurons, and genetic mosaicism’s role in neuropsychiatric disorders. The team includes postdoctoral and clinical fellows, emphasizing translational research between basic science and clinical applications.