Inserm Senior Researcher, in the NoLymIT team at the Toulouse Cancer Research Center (CRCT).
His 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 using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
In 2001, she joined Inserm U563 in Toulouse to resume research activities in a completely different field: immunology for anticancer purposes. His research then concerns the activation of innate immunity cells, and more particularly Tγδ lymphocytes and natural killer cells, for anti-tumor purposes.
She patented and published a process making it possible to quantify the reactivity of different blood cell populations towards a very wide panel of cancer cells. Then, she participated in a project which made it possible to show and patent the immuno-modulatory properties of synthetic phosphorous dendrimers, with in particular anti-inflammatory and anti-osteoclastic activities which could be of great interest in treatments against rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory pathologies. This research led to patents which are currently being developed by a Start-Up, IMD Pharma.
She was recruited in 2007 as Research Officer 1time class at Inserm in the team of Dr Jean-Jacques Fournié at the Toulouse Purpan Physiopathology Center. In 2011, his team participated in the creation of a new center, the Toulouse Cancer Research Center (CRCT). She then showed that the tumor microenvironment could have an immunosuppressive effect on Tγδ lymphocytes and a pro-tumoral effect through the transfer of chemoresistance membrane molecules to cancer cells.
In recent years, she has focused on potentiating the activation of Tγδ lymphocytes for anticancer therapeutic purposes, these lymphocytes having a strong anti-tumor cytotoxic potential. It also seeks to target Tumor Associated Macrophages (TAM) which are pro-tumoral cells promoting tumor development and chemo/immune resistance of tumor cells. To do this, it has produced and patented an antibody which very specifically targets pro-tumor TAMs and which could, combined with current therapies, improve their effectiveness and reduce side effects in treated patients.
This research has been promoted through around eighty publications and 5 patents.
She is also a member of various scientific evaluation committees (Cancer Plan, League Against Cancer, Eurobiomed, etc.) and she is part of the scientific animation committee of the CRCT for the organization of seminars, symposia, congresses.
