
We are pleased to introduce Ludovic Galas, head of the Normandie node, which has recently joined Euro-BioImaging as part of the French node. In this interview, Ludovic shares his background and presents the unique strengths of the Normandie node, from its state-of-the-art imaging platforms to its scientific expertises. He also reflects on the significance of integrating into the France-BioImaging and Euro-BioImaging communities and how this connection enhances visibility, fosters collaboration and provides new opportunities for users at both national and international levels.
Could you introduce yourself and your role within the Normandie node?
Attached to the Inserm Health TechnoIogies Institute, I am a cell biologist (PhD, HDR) with a research engineer position (IR HC HEB) and former international scientific experience in the Netherlands, the United States and Japan.
I am also author and co-author of more than a hundred publications in various fields due to facility activities, awarded from the French Society of Neuroendocrinology (2003) and from Inserm (Prix Innovation, 2017), co-founder of the international master program in Cell Imaging (University of Rouen Normandie, 2004), and reviewer for international journals and national « equipment » calls. I joined in 2025 the IBiSA scientific committee and the 2026 INBS roadmap working group (MESRI).
In 2022, I was appointed as director of HeRacLeS (Inserm US 51, CNRS UAR 2026, University of Rouen Normandie) with 7 facilities or services including the cell imaging platform of Normandie so called PRIMACEN of which I am the scientific leader. I am also the head of the Normandie node of France-BioImaging managing together with Isabelle Bardou (PhD, HDR, University of Caen Normandie), applications to calls, organizing meetings and seminars of the node and finally defining the scientific and technological node signatures but also the strategies for new equipment and associated human resource profiles. I also identify needs from Normandie node users that can be found in other FBI nodes.
Which platforms and R&D teams compose your node?
At that time, the Normandie node is composed of a single platform so called PRIMACEN which offers both advanced light and electron microscopy approaches. Thanks to expertise of human resources, we propose a full workflow from living and fixed sample preparation and labelling, image acquisition and image processing and analyses.
6 complementary R&D teams are also integrated in the Normandie node including a chemobiology CNRS team (UMR 6064-Rouen, Dr Xavier Franck), 3 Inserm teams in vascular sciences (UMR 1096-Rouen, Pr Jérémy Bellien and Dr Ebba Brakenhielm ; UMR 1237-Caen, Pr Denis Vivien ; UMR 1245-Rouen, Pr Gaël Nicolas and Dr Bruno Gonzalez), an ecotoxicology INERIS team (UMR-I 02-Le Havre, Prs Céline Boulangé-Lecomte and Frank Le Foll) and a team in microalgae biosciences (UR 4358-Rouen).
Historically, PRIMACEN and R&D teams have several common publications facilitating exchanges and collaborations within the Normandie node.


Which are the main application domains of your node?
Within the Normandie node, the first main application domain is « vascular sciences » including neurovascular dysfunction in the pathophysiology of neonatal brain, physiopathology of thrombosis/ischemic neurovascular disorders, inflammatory responses in hearts and vessels, vascular anatomy, immune cell migration and blood/hemolymph tissue perfusion in marine invertebrate models.

The second main application is related to the biosynthesis and secretion of glycoproteins with a special focus on N-glycosylation in microalgae models used as cell factories for biotherapies.
Finally, two more transversal domains are the development of new fluorescent probes and the investigation of intercellular, including cell-to-cell, communication modalities.
Can you share a scientific or technical success achieved within your node?
As a recent technical success, US 51 PRIMACEN platform (Rouen) has recently published a series of papers describing the combination of FLIM, confocal microscopy and STED nanoscopy for multi-labelling experiments in living samples (Bénard M et al.: Int J Mol Sci. 2021; Life Sci Alliance, 2024; Bio Protoc. 2025). Indeed, cell-to-cell communication via tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) is a challenging topic with a growing interest. Several innovative tools that use red/near-infrared dye labeling and employ lifetime-based imaging strategies were proposed to investigate the dynamics of TNTs in a living mesothelial H28 cell.
In a recent scientific advance, UMR 1237 PhIND (Caen) recently demonstrated that during aging, central nervous system-associated macrophages (CAMs; i.e., resident immune cells located along the brain vasculature at the interface between the bloodstream and the parenchyma) become key coordinators of the neuroimmune responses following stroke. Moreover, CAMs ensure a long-term fine-tuning of the immune responses triggered by stroke (Levard et al., Nat Neurosci 2024).
What are your perspectives following your node’s integration into France-BioImaging?
Following integration of the Normandie node into France-BioImaging, Damien Schapman, Christophe Chamot and Magalie Bénard (PhD) have contributed respectively to integration working group, training mission and Africa-France joint initiative. Marc Ropitaux, Sophie Bernard and Philippe Chan are involved in the organization of CLEM working group days (Rouen, 2026). We also stimulate the internship of Rouen master’s students in other nodes including Paris-Centre (2024), Bordeaux (2025) and Toulouse (2025)… We also developed reciprocal participation of node members to PhD monitoring committee (Audrey Salles, Paris-Centre/Normandie ; Jeremy Teillon, Bordeaux/Normandie ; Ludovic Galas Normandie/Bretagne-Loire).
Among France-BioImaging nodes, we currently envision particular collaborations with Ile-de-France Sud and Bordeaux nodes.
In 2023, I benefited from a EuBi/FBI user access for FIB-SEM imaging at Imagerie-Gif. In 2024, the consortium “UR4358 (R&D Team, Dr Elodie Rivet, Rouen), Imagerie-Gif (Dr Claire Boulogne) and PRIMACEN (Dr Ludovic Galas) facilities” applied to the 2025 ANR PRC program to unravel N-glycoproteins biosynthesis and secretion in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii microalga. The project so called « Secret Story » is currently under assessment (Phase 2 ANR). Since 2023, Christophe Chamot also contributes to the Confocal microscopy training organized by Sandrine Lecart and Romain Lebars at Imagerie-Gif. Damien Schapman, Christophe Chamot and Ludovic Galas were recently invited to the OV cytology and imaging R&D team (INRAe, Versailles) to share experience in metrology and image analysis and will contribute to the next « Journées Microscopie INRAe» in November 2025.
The Normandie node has also tight collaborations with the Bordeaux node including members of the Bordeaux Imaging Center (BIC; Dr Fabrice Cordelières, Dr Christel Poujol, Jérémy Teillon, Dr Magalie Modin, Sébastien Marais, Dr Etienne Gontier, Melina Petrel and Sabrina Lacomme). Dr Magalie Bénard contributed to the STED workshop which took place in Bordeaux (2024). Dr Bruno Gonzalez benefited (Inserm UMR 1245) in 2024 from a EuBi/FBI user access for TEM imaging at BIC and a manuscript entitled « Involvement of the Endothelial N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor on Vessel-Associated Positioning and Differentiation of Cortical Oligodendrocytes and on Motor Activity » is under revision in Journal of Neuroscience. Dr Etienne Gontier was invited in Rouen on June 18th 2025 to give a seminar on « 3D EM » to initiate new project on cell-cell contacts in retina and brain tissues.

If time will be sufficient, we would like to stimulate collaboration with the Alsace node (Dr Mayeul Collot, CNRS UMR 7199) as slightly initiated through a recent paper of Pfister et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, e202425276) on photoactivable fluorescent probe and Tunneling Nanotubes. We also would like to develop mechanobiology projects for vascular sciences and cell-to-cell communication.
Thanks to the FBI business developer Samy Al-Bourgol, PRIMACEN (Dr Ludovic Galas) and the Alga Biologics start-up (Pr Muriel Bardor) plan to apply next September to a “First Collaboration” call proposed by the Région Normandie in order to share knowledges and technologies. Finally, with the precious help of Caroline Thiriet (External Affairs Manager) and Marine Béraud (Communication Assistant), the Normandie Node is very enthusiastic to organize the next Annual Meeting of France-BioImaging during the second 2026 trimester.
Your node has recently joined Euro-BioImaging, what added value do you think you bring to the European community?
There are maybe two major added values the Normandie node can bring to European community. The first one is the clear opening to European and international users, whether it is collaborators or not of the R&D teams, in accordance with the strategies of the University of Rouen Normandie and the Région Normandie offering access to technological and scientific expertises. The 2024 France BioImaging call for external users led to PRIMACEN access for Dr Hamed Abbasi from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (an interview is coming soon).

In the future, the granted open access to the new Norman imaging facility will surely:
- Help to explore the complexity of physiological and pathological processes and possibly unravel new therapeutic targets,
- Reinforce existing collaborations between French and international teams,
- Increase the worldwide visibility of R&D teams/facility,
- Increase the income of PRIMACEN through diversification of users and the associated billing process.
Thanks to our technological and scientific signatures, we are planning to offer complementary approaches to study vascular sciences in the field of Neuro- and Cardio-vascular sciences. In particular but not exclusively, Drs Zheng and Denes (USA, Hungary) will be interested in two-photon microscopy for scientific projects related to stroke or central nervous system diseases while Dr Laguesse (Belgium) will have access to ophthalmic imaging to examine post-natal development of the retina. Our new fast intravital heart imaging (2025) is already very attractive for our Canadian (Dr Ruiz) and German (Dr Zernecke) collaborators. A paper entitled “Molecular determinants of cardiac lymphatic dysfunction in a chronic pressure-overload model” submitted by Dr Ebba Brakenhielm (U1096, Rouen, Normandie Node, France) and Dr Zernecke (Institute of Experimental Biomedicine, Würzburg, Germany) is currently under revision in EMBO Mol Med. This study revealed that loss of lymphatic valves and dysregulated lymphatic barrier may underly poor drainage capacity during pressure-overload, despite potent lymphangiogenesis and preserved lymphatic endothelial cell immune attraction. This work provides tractable targets to restore lymphatic health in cardiovascular diseases.

Our workflows for CLEM will be very helpful for functionalized nanoparticles characterization (Dr Khalin, Germany) and subcellular imaging of plant (Dr TeH, Taiwan) and microalgal (Dr Strasser, Austria; Dr Pandhal, UK and Dr Molinaro, Italy) samples. Finally, our skills in FLIM-STED imaging will have a valuable impact to determine, in cellulo, the photophysical properties of new organic fluorescent probes developed by Dr Karuso in Australia, Dr Guieu in Portugal and Proimaging (Dr Urbain, french SME). Besides Norman users, fluorescence lifetime imaging and nanoscopy will also be very useful for user (Dr Kantati, Togo) needing multiplexing experiments and super resolution imaging. Dr Kantati will apply to the Global Imaging call namely “Imaging 4 all” for a project aiming at identifying molecules from plants used in traditional medicine including those with neuroprotective effects.
We also want to stimulate Master student exchanges between the University of Rouen Normandie and the University of Turku/Åbo Akademi University in Finland. Amina Berredjem (IMAC, Rouen) is currently following a 6-month internship in the Viral Oncogenesis Laboratory under the supervision of Pr Sylvia Gramolelli (Åbo Akademi University, Biocity, Turku) to optimize immunocytochemical protocols while Tehreem Fatima spent 2 months on PRIMACEN (supervisors: Dr Ludovic Galas, Thomas Bance) for FIB-SEM image processing and analysis of microalgae. Such student exchanges could also be spreat out to other French nodes.