Nora BOURBIA, PhD
Didcot, United Kingdom
Nora @ bourbia . eu
Currently I am a postdoc fellow at the MRC Harwell (UK) in Pat Nolan’s team in neurobehavioural genetics.
Academic education
2015: PhD in neurophysiology of pain at university of Helsinki (Finland). Title: Central nucleus of the amygdala in descending control of pain-related behavior.
2009: Master’s degree in cellular and integrative neurosciences (distinction: “assez bien”) at University of Strasbourg (France).
2007: Bachelor’s degree in Physiology and cellular biology at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg (France).
Skills
- Research project management: Literature review, hypothesis and protocols designing, collecting and analysing data
- Technical skills: Behavioral assessment of rodents, electrophysiology, histochemistry, plasmid cloning, qPCR.
- Teaching
Doctoral Thesis
- Title: Central nucleus of the amygdala in descending control of pain-related behavior. Supervisor: Antti Pertovaara.
- Research project management
- Surgery: Spared nerve injury and intracerebral placement of guide cannulae
- Behavioral studies: Sensory-discriminative and emotional aspect of pain; Motor coordination test
- Electrophysiology : Extracellular recording with Spike 2 software
- Data and statistics analysis with Graphpad Prism software
Research internships
January-June 2009 – Department of physiology; University of Helsinki – Supervisor: Antti Pertovaara Topic of research: Involvement of CRF-BP in amygdala on pain.
- Surgery: Spared nerve injury and intracerebral placement of guide cannulae
- Behavioral tests: Von Frey filament test and place avoidance paradigm test
- Electrophysiology: Extracellular recording
- Data and statistics analysis
June-July 2008 – Department of nociception and pain; University of Strasbourg – Supervisor: Pierre Veinante Topic of research: Neuroanatomy of amygdala.
- Drugs injection by Hamilton syringe and iontophoresis
- Histochemistry and Immunochemistry
June – July 2006 – Institute of primatology in Strasbourg – Supervisor : Bernard Thierry Topic of research: Exchange capacity between primate and human beings. (In acknowledgments: Anim Cogn. 2010; Long-tailed macaques display unexpected waiting abilities in exchange tasks; Pelé M1, Dufour V, Micheletta J, Thierry B.)
- Training Macaca Fascicularis to exchange an object for food and then food for food
- Protocol: Measure waiting time to exchange their usual food for sweets
Scientific publications in refereed journals
- Sagalajev B, Bourbia N (share the first-authorship), Beloushko E, Wei H, Pertovaara A, Bidirectional amygdaloid control of neuropathic hypersensitivity mediated by descending serotonergic pathways acting on spinal 5-HT3 and 5-HT1A receptors., Behav Brain Res. 2014 Dec 31;282:14-24.
- Bourbia N., Sagalajev B., Pertovaara A., Descending effect on spinal nociception by amygdaloid glutamate varies with the submodality of noxious test stimulation, Neuroscience Letters. 570 (2014) 26–31
- Bourbia N., Ansah OB., Pertovaara A., Corticotropin-releasing factor in the rat amygdala differentially influences sensorydiscriminative and emotional-like pain response in peripheral neuropathy, J Pain. 2010 Dec;11(12):1461-71.
- Ansah OB., Bourbia N., Goncalves L., Almeida A., Pertovaara A., Influence of amygdaloid glutamatergic receptors on sensory and emotional pain-related behavior in the neuropathic rat, Behav Brain Res. 2010 May 1;209(1):174-8.
Short review
- Bourbia N., Pertovaara A., Is finding the common biological link(s) between pain and affect an infinity quest? Scand J Pain. 2011 doi: 10.1016/j.sjpain.2011.05.001.
Book
- Gonçalves L., Bourbia N., Viisanen H., Ansah O.B., Almeida A., Pertovaara A., Amygdala in the control of neuropathic pain, 4th International Congress on Neuropathic Pain (May 23-26, 2013, Toronto, Canada, pages 53-57). Medimond, International Proceedings Division.
Oral presentations
- Joint meeting of the Federation of the European physiological societies (FEPS) and European Young Physiologist Symposium (EYPS), Budapest (Hungary), 27-30 august 2014. FEPS Award for young investigators.
- European Pain School 2011: Bridging molecules and mind, Siena (Italy), 11-19 June 2011.
Poster presentations
- FENS Regional Meeting, Pécs (Hungary), 20-23 September 2017
- 6th Cambridge Neuroscience Symposium 2017: Neural Networks in Health and Disease, Cambridge (UK), 7-8 September 2017
- 9th Neuroscience Ireland Conference, Dublin (Ireland), 1-2 September 2015.
- Brain and Mind (B&M) Symposium 2014, Kirkkonummi (Finland), 11-12 September 2014.
- Annual conference of the Scandinavian Physiological Society, Stockholm (Sweden), 22-24 August 2014.
- Joint Meeting of the Scandinavian and German Physiological Societies, Copenhagen (Danemark), 27-30 March 2010.
- 7th Forum of European Neurosciences (FENS), Amsterdam (Netherlands), 3-7 July 2010.
Awards
- FEPS Award for young investigators presented at European Young Physiologist Symposium (EYPS), Budapest (Hungary), 2014.
- Winner of the academic poster presentation at the WorldCon 75, Helsinki (Finland) for presenting (talk and poster) my research in this World Science-Fiction Convention in 2017.
- Runner-up (2nd) with commendation letter for the MRC CEO Awards 2017 in the category Public Engagement.
- Winner of the MRC Harwell Institute Awards 2017 in the category Public Engagement.
Grants
Research project grants
- Finnish cultural foundation, stipend, 22000 euros / year, April 2013 and April 2014
- Emil Aaltosen säätiö, stipend, 20000 euros, April 2012,
- Yrjö ja Tuulikki Ilvosen rahasto, stipend, 12000 euros, October 2011
Scholarships
- CIMO Scholarship, 13200 euros, October 2009 to September 2011
- ERASMUS scholarship, internship stipend, 4800 euros, January to June 2009
Travel grants
- IBRO (International Brain Research Organization), travel grant, 600 euros, 2017
- Chancellor’s (University of Helsinki) travel grant, 800 euros / travel, 2010, 2014 and 2015
- Scandinavian physiology society, travel grant, 1000 SEK, 2010
Public engagement grant
- MRC public engagement funding, grant to attend the WorldCon75, 250 pounds, 2017
Teaching
Problem-based learning teacher to students in Master’s Degree in Translational Medicine (TRANSMED) at university of Helsinki. Topic : Urinary physiology ; year : September 2014 and September 2015.
Languages
French (mother tongue), fluent in English and basics in Finnish.
Hobbies
- Sport : Green belt in Haidong-Gumdo
- Crochet, scalemail weaving and sewing : Currently I am learning to sew Victorian corset and crafting scalemail armor parts. All of my craft projects can be found on my blog (FR)
- Stargazer with a reflector telescope dobsonien Skywatcher Skyliner 20/1200 and a refractor telescope Skywatcher Evostar-90 on EQ-2 mount
- Robotics : My current project is to build a “Dalek” which says “exterminate” when it detects a motion. Here a video of the 1st part of the projet : “Motion and Exterminate“
- Reading : mainly science-fiction.
- Science lover : I am interested in all science fields from astronomy to zoology. I also do popular science podcasts (FR)
- Chili growing in various hydroponic systems
- Amateur photography : I am a beginner and my photoblog is PixHell.net
- Music : Playing mainly bass and drums, also guitar and violin
- Role playing game : I have a preference for narrative-focus RPGs like Deadlands and Numenera
- Board game and video game player : I play different types of games with a preference for civilization and 4X simulations ; FPS and player-cooperation / teamwork games ; Point’n’Click adventure games
Licenses
- B category driving licenses
- C-category (scientist) competence to work with laboratory animals according to EU Directive’s (2010/63/EU): rodents and fishes
- First-Aider