Christophe Bernard.

Christophe Bernard

Director of research
Institute of Systems Neuroscience

Christophe Bernard is director of research at the Institute of Systems Neuroscience, INSERM U1106. His main interest is to understand brain dynamics in health and disease, with a focus on epilepsy.

He acts as a reviewing editor for Science Advances, and formerly for Science and the Journal of Neuroscience. He created and is the editor-in-chief of eNeuro, the online open-access journal of the Society for Neuroscience. eNeuro is designed to serve and educate the neuroscience community, promoting reproducibility, publishing negative results and sensitizing scientists to open science and better data interpretation with a focus on statistics and experimental bias.

Bernard obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Pierre and Marie Curie University, did his postdoctoral research at the University of Southampton and spent a sabbatical at Baylor College of Medicine. He participated in the development of organic technologies to record and control brain activity, which earned him the Felix Innovation Prize, and in the development of the Virtual Mouse Brain.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustrated collage of a monkey profile, a gloved hand holding a vaccine syringe touching an outline of the United States with two primates sitting near it, a strand of DNA, and flags of the United States and China in the background.

U.S. national primate research centers face an uncertain future

The facilities were meant to last 100 years. Four decades shy of that mark, amid flatlined funds and mounting political pressure, their directors are trying to find a path forward.

By Calli McMurray
9 October 2026 | 12 min read
Reflections of primates in lab equipment (bottom left: Rhesus macaque, top left: Pig-tailed macaque, bottom right: Crab-eating macaque. top right: Marmoset

What if nonhuman primate research goes away?

As the U.S. government takes steps to stop using nonhuman primates in research, The Transmitter investigates what that shift could mean for neuroscience.

By The Transmitter
9 October 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of primate hands interacting with objects of cognitive tests.

The neuroscience questions that need nonhuman primates

The Transmitter asked 17 neuroscientists what questions might remain unanswered if support for nonhuman primate research continues to decline.

By Alissa de Chassey
9 October 2026 | 10 min read