photographist

“When I became a researcher I realized it was,what I had wanted to do since I was a kid, though at the time I could not name it. If you want to do something, you should pursue it and not restrict yourself as some women do because they feel devalued. I was fortunate to receive an education from my parents who always encouraged me, so I never felt any discrimination. Thus, I realized much later that sometimes women and men are treated differently. I had a research advisor who was very harsh on females, but thanks to my education I never gave up and tried to ignore his biased attitude. I persevered and told myself, ‘yes, this is unfair but it is what I really love to do, I must succeed!’

It appears that uncontrolled inflammation can cause many pathologies in humans, including cancer. For a long time I have been interested in the inflammatory response, so I decided to create a research team that would investigate the link between inflammation and cancer. There are many questions regarding inflammation, one hypothesis is that a tumour creates a chronic inflammatory state as a way to escape detection and destruction by the immune system. However, some inflammatory signals are required to boost the immune system to detect and eradicate the tumour cells.  Many different actors are involved in the inflammation response; my team is focusing on a complex named “inflammasome” and we are trying to understand whether this complex supports or inhibits tumour growth.”

Virginie Pétrilli
Research Fellow - CNRS, Centre de recherche en cancérologie de Lyon

next