Inserm Research Director (DR1)
TEAM LEADER : KIDNEY AND VASCULAR SIGNALLING: FROM DEVELOPMENT TO DISEASE
Trained as a Nephrologist and a Pathophysiologist, I don’t see my goals in research as being fundamentally different from my goals as a physician. For both, I am driven by a desire to help patients with life-threatening diseases.
The research themes of our laboratory are translational in nature and centre on gaining a better understanding of the basic pathophysiology of human kidney diseases to improve the management and treatment of patients with chronic kidney diseases. Thus, our Team blends engineers, scientists and physician-scientists.
Several projects in the laboratory are guided by the overarching hypothesis that deregulated cellular communications and loss of defense mechanisms against immune and metabolic stresses are essential to cause destructive tissue inflammatory and profibrotic transformation.
We also delineate the determinants of patients’ health trajectories and are involved in clinical trials.
Our work covers
1- Intercellular signaling and cell metabolism in glomerular diseases such as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), Crescentic Glomerulonephritides, Minimal Change Disease, diabetic and hypertensive nephropathies, and more generally in Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD).
2- Drug repositioning and new drug developments targeting kidney diseases.
3- Innate immunity in Sickle Cell Nephropathy, Vasculopathy, and other Glomerular diseases.
2009- present: Inserm Research Professor and Team Leader « Kidney and vascular signaling: from development to diseases » at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre (PARCC), Georges Pompidou European Hospital, Inserm & Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
2020- present: Guest Professor, Hamburg Center for Kidney Heath, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
2023- present: International Society of Glomerular Disease, Basic & Translational Research Committee Chair.
2023- present: Scientific Councilor and French Foundation for Rare Diseases chair.
2022- present: Deputy Director of the Inserm Institute for Pathophysiology, Metabolism & Nutrition.
2022- present: President of the French Kidney Foundation Scientific Council – Fondation du Rein.
2023- present: Member of the Scientific Council of the French Foundation for Rare Diseases – Fondataion Maladies Rares.
2016- 2021: Elected Member and vice-president of INSERM CSS3 Study Section “Physiology, Pathophysiology.”
2017- 2022: Councilor of the French Society of Hypertension
2013-2019: Councilor of the French Society of Cardiology/GRRC and Member of the Scientific Program Committee for the annual French Society of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research meeting.
Kidney International’s Reviewer of the Year award, 2023
FRIAS Senior Fellow, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg, Germany, 2015-16
Eloi Collery Prize of the French National Academy of Medicine, 2013
