Career paths can take unexpected turns. My journey to academic research began in banking, where a client working on genetically enhanced crops introduced me to bioengineering. This sparked my curiosity and led me to retrain in plant biology at the University of Liège, Belgium. During my undergraduate project at a small marine research station in Corsica, I identified red algae under a microscope and first encountered the pyrenoid, an organelle that would become central to my career. At the time, little was known about the pyrenoid’s molecular structure, though it was recognized as crucial to the algal CO₂-concentrating mechanism (CCM), which sustains most photosynthesis in aquatic environments.

In 2006, I joined Howard Griffiths’ lab for my PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. We initially focused on studying the hornwort pyrenoid—an oddity among plants—but quickly shifted to the model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, realizing it was a more tractable system for understanding the molecular basis of pyrenoid formation. Collaborating with Professor Robert J. Spreitzer’s lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we discovered that Rubisco’s small subunits control pyrenoid formation. This breakthrough helped secure funding from NSF-BBSRC (UK) for the "Combining Algal and Plant Photosynthesis" (CAPP) project, aimed at improving photosynthetic efficiency in crops. CAPP brought together researchers from Cambridge, the Carnegie Institution (now part of Princeton and the University of York), and the John Innes Centre (now in Edinburgh), leading to the identification of EPYC1, a protein that helps form the pyrenoid matrix.

In 2017, I joined Martin Jonikas’ lab at Princeton to expand my expertise in molecular biology and continue working on the Chlamydomonas pyrenoid. I uncovered how a simple Rubisco-binding motif organizes the pyrenoid’s architecture, raising intriguing questions about the convergence of unrelated proteins.

When my former collaborator, now Assistant Professor, Shan He, invited me to join her newly established lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I eagerly accepted. We aim to build on our work from Princeton and explore, among other questions, how proteins are dynamically recruited to the pyrenoid when needed.

My journey is not only about the discoveries but also the people who made them possible—mentors, colleagues, and students who continue to advance pyrenoid research. Science is a shared voyage, and I’m grateful for the many companions along the way.