Dr. Nora BOURBIA

Group Leader of the Neurobiology and Physiology group at Public Health England, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (PHE CRCE)

Curriculum vitæ

Nora BOURBIA, PhD
Didcot, United Kingdom
Nora @ bourbia . eu

I am the group leader of the physiology and neurobiology group at the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) of Public Health England (PHE, Chilton, UK).

Academic education

Mars 2016 – November 2018: Postdoctoral fellow at MRC Harwell studying neurobehavioral genetics.
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, with a focus in the field of neurophysiology and genetics.
    • Technical skills: Behavioral assessment of rodents, electrophysiology, histochemistry, plasmid cloning, qPCR.
    • Teaching

Doctoral Thesis

    • 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

  • Bourbia N, Chandler P, Codner G, Banks G, Nolan PM., The guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Spata13, influences social behaviour and nocturnal activity, Mamm Genome. 2019 Apr;30(3-4):54-62
  • Bourbia N, Pertovaara A, Involvement of the periaqueductal gray in the descending antinociceptive effect induced by the central nucleus of amygdala, Physiological Research. 2018 Aug 16;67(4):647-655.
  • 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 : Blue belt in Haidong-Gumdo
  • Crochet, scalemail and wire weaving, and sewing: 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 did few 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 Conan, Mutant: Year zero or Deadlands
  • 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
  • Personal licence for working with laboratory animals in UK: PIL A, B and C for mice.
  • First-Aider
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