Antoine Triller

Antoine Triller (born 23 May 1952) is research director at the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm). He is a researcher in neurobiology.

Biography Antoine Triller has a medical background at the university hospital centre of La Pitié Salpetrière (1978). In Jean Scherrer's laboratory, he turned to neurophysiology and initiated research work on inhibitory synapses with Henri Korn, a specialist in the field.

In 1979, he was recruited as a research associate at Inserm. In 1985, he obtained his PhD in science.

He has been President of the Union rationaliste de France since 2019.

Scientific work By working on the Mauthner cell, a model used in the 1980s to study the quantum release mechanisms of neurotransmitters in the central nervous system, Triller began to focus on the intimate mechanisms of synapses and the molecules that compose them. As early as 1985, he was able to visualize the glycine receptor in the synapses of the central nervous system by electron microscopy and show that neurotransmitter receptors are concentrated in front of the synaptic vesicle release zones. This work has been used as a model to locate most channels and receptors, such as glutamate receptors. Triller demonstrated the possibility of a co-transmission involving two conventional transmitters, glycine and GABA.

He created his laboratory at the École normale supérieure de la rue d'Ulm in 1995 and reoriented his activities towards the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control the recruitment and trafficking of receptors in the synapse. He showed that the nature of the pre-synaptic neurotransmitter determined the type of receptor accumulating in the post synaptic density. In addition, using electron microscopy, he was able to demonstrate the presence of messenger RNAs encoding the glycine receptor in dendrites. that highlights multiple molecular mechanisms responsible for regulating these movements and ultimately the intensity of information transmission between neurons. Triller has contributed to a new understanding of the mechanisms of addressing stability and plasticity of the synapse, making it possible to broaden pharmacological approaches to neural dysfunctions.

One of Triller's contributions has been to demonstrate that these fundamental mechanisms are deregulated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Awards and honours

1995: Winner of the "Foundation for Medical Research " 2004: Award from the French Atomic Energy Commission: Great Prize of the French Academy of Sciences 2010: Lamonica Prize in Neurology: Grand Prize of the Academy of Sciences 2011: Medical Research Prize of the Association France Alzheimer 2018: Inserm Honorary Prize