Moustapha Berrakmouch
PhD student
moustapha.berrakmouch@donders.ru.nl
Since March 2026, I am a PhD candidate at the Genzel Lab in Radboud University. Before that, I did a Bachelor's degree in Physiology, followed by a Master's degree in Fundamental and Clinical Neurosciences at UCBL Lyon 1 University (France), where I gained expertise in behavioral neuroscience. During my master's, I did internships at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), where I studied the long-term impact of semi-naturalistic living environments on the cognitive abilities of rodents. The goal was to examine the impact of housing, while exploring spatial navigation, memory, and individual variability across sexes.
My research is part of the European TRANSCEND network, which aims to improve animal welfare and enhance the translational validity of neuroscience research. Specifically, the goal is to develop a semi-naturalistic habitat for rodents, integrating housing and testing units with continuous behavioral monitoring using position tracking. This setup will allow behavioral phenotyping, in order to generate richer, more consistent, and clinically relevant data, with reduced experimenter intervention and animal stress. The project also involves interdisciplinary collaboration with philosophers to produce outreach material on the use of animal models in research. I am passionate about the intersection of animal welfare and translational neuroscience and aim to pursue a long-term career as a lecturer-researcher in that field.