Dr Laurent Blanchoin is Research Director of Institute of Life Sciences Research and Technologies (iRTSV) and co-leads the CytoMorphoLab with Manuel Théry. He obtained his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Université Paris VI and completed postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University and The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Blanchoin’s research group focuses on the investigation of morphogenesis in living systems. In particular they aim to unravel the rules that direct “cytoskeleton” self-organisation. To reveal the rules directing cytoskeleton architectures they work on animal cells of various kinds as well as on reconstituted networks of filaments, that they assemble from purified proteins in cell-free systems. These two complementary approaches, complex and minimalist, physiological and fully controlled, allow them to reveal the core properties of living matter. In particular, they focus on the process of symmetry break and polarisation of cytoskeleton networks. They aim at identifying the mechanisms by which cells orient in space and specify the axis that defines their body plan.