Chargée de Recherches Hors Classe Inserm, in the NoLymIT team at the Toulouse Cancer Research Center (CRCT).
Its areas of scientific expertise are biochemistry, pharmacology and immunology applied to cancer therapy.
During her three-year thesis, she synthesized plant sterols and studied the interactions between these sterols and plant lipids, exploring their biophysical properties by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
In 2001, she joined Inserm U563 in Toulouse to take up research activities in a completely different field: anti-cancer immunology. Her research focused on the activation of innate immunity cells, in particular Tγδ lymphocytes and natural killer cells, for anti-tumor purposes.
She patented and published a procedure for quantifying the reactivity of different blood cell populations to a wide range of cancer cells. She then took part in a project which demonstrated and patented the immunomodulating properties of synthetic phosphorus dendrimers, with anti-inflammatory and anti-osteoclastic activities of particular interest in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory pathologies. This research has led to patents which are currently being exploited by a start-up company, IMD Pharma.
In 2007, she was recruited as a1st class Research Associate at Inserm in Dr. Jean-Jacques Fournié's team at the Toulouse Purpan Physiopathology Center. In 2011, her team participated in the creation of a new center, the Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Toulouse (CRCT). It showed that the tumor microenvironment could have an immunosuppressive effect on Tγδ lymphocytes and a pro-tumor effect through the transfer of chemoresistant membrane molecules to cancer cells.
In recent years, she has focused on potentiating the activation of Tγδ lymphocytes for anti-cancer therapeutic purposes, as these lymphocytes have strong anti-tumor cytotoxic potential. It is also seeking to target Tumor-Associated Macrophages (TAMs), which are pro-tumor cells that promote tumor development and chemo-/immuno-resistance of tumor cells. To this end, it has produced and patented an antibody that targets pro-tumor TAMs very specifically, and which could, in combination with current therapies, improve their efficacy and reduce side-effects in treated patients.
This research has resulted in some eighty publications and 5 patents.
She is also a member of various scientific evaluation committees (Plan cancer, Ligue contre le cancer, Eurobiomed...) and is part of the CRCT's scientific steering committee for the organization of seminars, symposia and congresses.
