Brahim TIGHILET (Lecturer-Researcher)

I am a Senior Lecturer at Aix Marseille University. I obtained my doctorate in Neurosciences at Aix-Marseille University in 1995, then I carried out two postdoctoral internships, one in the “College of Medicine” at the University of Irvine in California (UC Irvine) and the other at the University of Davis (UC Davis) in the laboratory of Prof. Edward G. Jones. My area of ​​expertise is in the area of ​​vestibular compensation. For many years, I have been carrying out my research in the Sensory and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the UMR 7260 of the CNRS.

My research activities are centered on the experimental analysis of the neurobiological bases of the adaptation and restoration of vestibular functions in adults with vestibulolysis as well as on the search for factors or conditions allowing and facilitating their expression. Of resolutely fundamentalist inspiration, this research naturally opens up to the field of Health and Medicines through the therapeutic applications to which it can lead. My most original discovery concerns the demonstration for the first time of a vestibular neurogenesis (birth of new neurons in the vestibular nuclei disconnected from their peripheral sensors) post-lesion in our experimental model of plasticity of vestibular functions and its role. beneficial in restoring static and dynamic balancing functions.

Over the past several years, I have developed an ongoing partnership with the pharmaceutical industry in the field of neuropharmacology of vertigo. My work has notably made it possible to demonstrate for the first time the mechanisms and sites of action of betahistine in an animal model of vestibular pathology. I have published about fifty articles in various scientific journals and book chapters. Since 2019, I have been president of the Vertigo Research Group association. I have filed with the CNRS 2 patents concerning pharmacological anti-vertigo compounds. I am the co-founder of Vertidiag, a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of therapeutic solutions against vestibular disorders.