Nabila Founounou’s experience in the field of scientific research began during her internships as a part of her training at the “Genetics, development, immunity” master at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (2006–2008). The first internship in Dr Yannick Marchand-Brustel’s laboratory (“molecular signaling and obesity”, INSERM) consisted of a study related to glucose transporter Glut4 trafficking in insulin resistance and type II diabetes. The second internship concerned invasive cell migration in Drosophila melanogaster within egg-chamber performed in Dr Stephen Noselli’s laboratory (“morphogenesis and signaling in Drosophila”, CNRS). For her thesis (2008–2011) she moved to Rennes in Dr Roland Le Borgne’s laboratory (“cell polarity, membrane traffic and signaling”, CNRS) at the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes where she started to study the role of septins during asymmetric cell division in Drosophila.