On Thursday November 6, Baptiste Libé-Philippot was awarded the Prix Paoletti 2024 by CNRS Biology and the CNRS Foundation.

Baptiste Libé-Philippot, an alumnus of the École normale supérieure, completed his doctorate at the Institut Pasteur, under the supervision of Christine Petit and Nicolas Michalski. His research explored the impact of genes associated with deafness on the development of the auditory cortex. He subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at VIB/KU Leuven in Belgium, in Pierre Vanderhaeghen’s laboratory, where he discovered the influence of hominid-specific genes on the physiology of human cortical neurons. In 2024, he joined the CNRS as a research fellow and founded the “Évolution des neurones humains” team at the Institut de biologie du développement in Marseille, with support from ATIP-Avenir and the European Research Council (ERC).

His team, Evolution of Human Neurons, explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of neural development and properties in humans. His research focuses on the evolution of the human cerebellum, a brain region involved not only in motor control, but also in advanced human cognitive functions such as language.