Laurent Cotter is a senior scientist in the Advanced Cell Models Laboratory, within the Animal Cell Technology Unit of iBET (Portugal), since october 2023. His research is focused on neurological disorders modelling using in vivo and in vitro tools. For several years now, he uses human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSCs) to generate specific human neurons to better understand neuropathologies. Laurent obtained his PhD in Neurosciences with the University of Montpellier (France). He started his PhD work at the ETH of Zurich and defended it in south of France in 2016. He studied myelination in the peripheral nervous system and highlighted way to modulate myelin geometry. To complement his knowlodge on axon-glial interactions he joined the Pasteur Institute in Paris where he started to use hiPSCs and looked for alpha synuclein (a-Syn) transmission into neuronal network. This work allowed him to acquire experience with hiPSCs and to be recruited by a pharma company. There, he successfully developed a cell-based assay using hiPSC-derived motor neurons to detect Botulinum neurotoxin activity. Before to join iBET he also collaborated with another company, to test their component using patient-derived cortical neurons.