Léa-Laetitia PONTANI Nationality: French
Post-doctoral fellow Born: 5th January 1983
Center for soft Matter Research
Department of Physics
New York University
4, Washington Place room 608
New York, NY 10003 USA
phone: 212 998 7977
fax: 212 995 4168
E-mail:
EDUCATION:
2009 PhD in Biophysics, "Université Pierre et Marie Curie" (Paris VI).
2006 Masters Degree (second year) in Analytical physico-chemistry, "Université Pierre et Marie Curie" (Paris VI).
2002-2006 Degree from "Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris" (ESPCI).
2000-2002 Preparating course for the nation-wide competitive examinations for the "Grandes Ecoles" (Physics section).
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
Since 2010 Post-doctoral position, New York University, Center for Soft Matter Research, in Jasna Brujic’s group Biophysics and Jamming.
2006-2009 PhD, Institut Curie (Physics and Chemistry of Life), directed by Professor Cécile Sykes
"Reconstitution of an actin cortex inside a liposome".
2005 6 weeks internship in the "Physicochimie des Polymères et des Milieux Dispersés" laboratory at ESPCI: "Drying/rehumidifation of colloidal suspensions".
6 weeks internship in the "Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés" laboratory at ESPCI:
"Influence of the size of magnetic beads used as probes for diagnostics".
2004 Six months internship in the R&D department, GlaxoSmithKline (Stevenage, England):
"Active molecules synthesis through organic chemistry".
2003 One month internship in the ESPCIBiology laboratory:
"θ tubulin localization in paramecium".
TEACHING:
2006-2009 Lecturer in chemistry in University Paris XII (Créteil).
2002-2006 Private teacher in physics, chemistry and mathematics.
PUBLICATIONS:
[1] L.-L. Pontani, J. van der Gucht, G. Salbreux, J. Heuvingh, J.-F. Joanny, C. Sykes, “Reconstitution of an Actin Cortex inside a Liposome”, Biophys J. 2009 Jan;96(1):192-8
[2] E. Mabrouk , D. Cuvelier , L.-L. Pontani , B. Xu, D. Lévy , P. Keller , F. Brochard-Wyart , P. Nassoy , M.-H. Li, “Formation and material properties of giant liquid crystal polymersomes”, Soft Matter, 2009 Mars; 5; 1870–1878
[3] W. Römer, L.-L. Pontani, B. Sorre, L. Berland, V. Chambon, C. Lamaze, P. Bassereau, C. Sykes, K. Gaus and L. Johannes, “Actin dynamics drive membrane reorganization and scission in clathrin-independant endocytosis”, Cell, 2010 Feb; 140(4):540-553.
[4] L.-L. Pontani*, M. Murrell*, K. Guevorkian, D. Cuvelier, P. Nassoy, C. Sykes, “Spreading Dynamics of Biomimetic Actin Cortices”, Biophys J. 2011 Mar 16;100(6):1400-9
[5] I. Jorjadze, L.-L. Pontani, K. A. Newhall, and J. Brujić, “Attractive emulsion droplets probe the phase diagram of jammed granular matter”, PNAS, 108, 11 (2011)
[6] L.-L. Pontani, I. Jorjadze, V. Viasnoff, and J. Brujić, “Modeling cell adhesion with biomimetic emulsions”, PNAS 109, 25 (2012)
[7] K. A. Newhall, L.-L. Pontani, I. Jorjadze, S. Hilgenfeldt, and J. Brujić
“Size-topology relations in packings of grains, emulsions, foams and biological cells”
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 268001 (2012);
[8] I. Jorjadze, L.-L. Pontani and J. Brujić, “Microscopic approach to the nonlinear elasticity of compressedemulsions”, Accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett.
[9] C. Campillo, P. Sens, D. Köster, L.-L. Pontani, D. Lévy, P. Bassereau, P. Nassoy, C. Sykes, “Unexpected membrane dynamics unveiled by membrane nanotube extrusion”, Accepted in Biophys. J.
AWARDS:
2010 French Society of Physics Michelin Price for Young Researchers.