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“Working with a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine was exciting! I had
the opportunity to spend two years in the laboratory of Professor
Roger Guillemin (Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA) who had the greatest
respect for young researchers. It was a wonderful experience.
I worked on GRF, a factor produced by hypothalamic neurons that
stimulates the secretion of growth hormone. Pr. Roger Guillemin
had already identified several neuropeptides for which he received
the Nobel Prize in 1977. The GRH discovery was pretty amazing
with major implications as a diagnostic tool for growth delay.
When I returned to Besançon, France, I obtained a hospital
teaching position and I was involved in exploration of growth
diseases. Years later, I was appointed professor of Cell Biology
at the Medical School and I had the opportunity to structure
and connect basic and translational sciences in the field of
human papillomaviruses and cancer.
Papillomaviruses
are part of a large family of viruses that cause cervical
cancer, for which we currently have prophylactic vaccines. With
my team, we worked on the viral biomarkers to be able to predict
which women were most at risk of developing cervical cancer.
We also worked on cellular models to kill cancerous cells derived
from cervical cancers.
In addition, papillomaviruses are the drivers of anal cancer
as well as a significant proportion of ENT cancers, which are
on the increase, making our research even more necessary. Our
inter-disciplinary approach integrates a research-patients-clinic
relationship in tumor virology.” |
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