Florent Figon

I am a post-doc researcher (Ph.D. in Biology) at the Insect Biology Research Institute (CNRS), Tours, France. I am deeply interested in understanding organismal biology with an integrative approach, i.e. at a multiscale and interdisciplinary level. My research focuses on the chemical, molecular and cellular bases of plastic phenotypic traits, and their physiological and ecological consequences. I currently investigate the cyclic biochemical and cellular processes underlying the metabolism of a widespread class of invertebrate pigments, the ommochromes. Ommochromes are involved in a vast array of biological functions, from compound eye-based vision to reversible color change of crab spiders and cephalopods. I aim at unraveling the biochemical and trafficking pathways allowing crab spiders to match the color of the flower on which they hunt by combining state-of-the-art analytical (ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry), cell imaging (high-pressure freezing, electron microscopy and nano-scale Synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence) and computational (quantum photochemistry) techniques.