Virginie Hamel

Virginie Hamel is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Geneva in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. She co-leads a structural cell biology lab with Dr. Paul Guichard, focusing on centriole and connecting cilium assembly in photoreceptor cells and immune synapse architecture.

• Core Research Areas: Molecular mechanisms of ciliary structure-function relationships, retinal degeneration in ciliopathies, and expansion microscopy (U-ExM) development for ultrastructural analysis.
• Collaborations: Key partnerships with Dr. Corinne Kostic/Prof. Yvan Arsenijevic (Jules-Gonin Hospital, UNIL) and Prof. Ronald Roepman for retinal disease studies.
• Recent Work: Publications on FAM161A, LCA5, and AGBL5 gene mutations linked to retinal ciliary defects, using U-ExM and cryo-tomography to visualize disease mechanisms.
• Lab Affiliation: Part of the GenExM team, working with technicians, postdocs, and PhD students like Lorène Bournonville on photoreceptor ultrastructure.