Get to Know Pascal Lafontant, Professor of Biology

Have you ever wanted to grow a two-headed worm? Pascal Lafontant, professor of biology  at Grinnell, teaches a Biological Inquiry (BIO-150) course famous for giving budding biology students the opportunity to pursue their Frankenstein-inspired dreams. The theme of his course is “regeneration,” and students in the course use a model organism — the planaria flatworm — to learn about the signaling processes that allow the worm to regrow parts of its body. In Lafontant's Regeneration course, students alter those same biological processes to induce abnormalities in the regrowth process — such as two-headedness! Alongside BIO-150, Professor Lafontant teaches BIO-251 Molecules, Cells, and Organisms and a 300-level lab course on cancer biology. He also offers mentored independent and advanced projects — MIPs and MAPs, opportunities that focus on his work with the zebrafish heart.

The themes of Regeneration are closely tied to Professor Lafontant’s broader research interests, which he says have always been centered on the heart. He began his career as an engineer, creating left-ventricular assist devices (aka heart pumps), but he moved into biology as his interests moved from mechanical stimulation towards understanding the biological mechanisms behind cardiac function. His work has included study of inflammation in the human heart after a heart attack, activating heart cells to stimulate regrowth, and, now, regeneration of the heart in the zebrafish. The most recent focus of his lab is the innervation of the heart: how does cardiac innervation occur, what nerves are present, and how can they modulate development and regeneration processes?

If you have taken a class with Professor Lafontant, you may have picked up on a sense of what he calls “wonderment.” Wonderment reflects his belief that the whole world of science is fascinating. As Lafontant sees it, there is a lot within the field of biology for students to be excited about. In the research experiences he creates for students, he typically doesn’t assign projects — he lets students explore their own interests within the context of the lab and, in doing so, he creates an environment where they are guided by their own excitement. He encourages students considering research with him to stop by his lab to chat and to ask current MIP and MAP students about their research projects to see whether his lab is a place where they could find wonderment. Through research, he hopes that his students become good scientists, enjoy the experience, learn from it, and when it’s possible — when there’s data — publish it.

Professor Lafontant is a recent addition to the Grinnell College biology department, having only started teaching at Grinnell in 2020. His time at the College is just beginning, but he’s become a well-known name for biology majors looking for interesting research experiences, fascinating course material, and insightful advising. And on top of all the work he does as a professor, a research mentor, and an advisor, he also interacts with students frequently in informal advising spaces. In other words, if you see him around the hallways of Noyce, feel free to stop and chat.