CV Science

Anne Druilhe PhD Pathophysiology

Course and current status

• 2017-Present Head of the technology platform BISCEm for life sciences, Limoges University and Hospital, US042 Inserm and UMS 2015 CNRS since 2020, Limoges, France
• 2012-2017 Research assistant (Inserm permanent position as 'CRCN') in M. Cogné's team, UMR CNRS 7276 Inserm 1262 (Director : M. Cogné), Limoges University, Limoges, France
• 2006-2012 Research assistant (Inserm permanent position as 'CR1') in F. Terzi's team, Inserm U845 (Director : P. Kelly/G. Friedlander), Paris Descartes University - Necker site, Paris, France
• 2000-2006 Research assistant (Inserm permanent position as 'CR2') in M. Pretolani's team, Inserm U408/U700 (Director : M. Aubier/M. Pretolani), Paris Diderot University - Bichat site, Paris, France
• 1998-2000 Post doctoral fellow in E.S. Alnemri's team, Kimmel Cancer Institute (Director : C. Croce), Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA
• 1994-1998 M2 then PhD student in M. Pretolani's team, Inserm U285/U485 (Director : B.B. Vargaftif), Pasteur Institute, Paris - PhD degree from Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France
• Before 1994 Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology, Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France, then Master's degree in Cell Biology and Animal Physiology, Montpellier 2 University, Montpellier, France

Scientific summary

Many diseases are characterized by modifications of tissue architecture, also known as tissue remodeling. For instance, a main feature of severe asthma is the irreversible thickening of the bronchial wall. In other organs such as kidney, remodeling translates into cysts and fibrosis. Changes in tissue architecture are often positively correlated wih the severity of diseases. Thus, unveiling the phenomena, the cells and the molecules that are involved in tissue remodeling is a prerequisite for the development of innovative therapeutics.

All the work I did focused on tissue remodeling and on the phenomena whose deregulation contributes to alterations of organ architecture. These phenomena include 1) inflammation, and 2) migration, proliferation, survival, changes of morphology (size, shape), differentiation, and  death of structural cells (epithelial cells, fibroblasts,...).

More specifically, using primary cell cultures and mouse models, I studied (see publications at http://www.researcherid.com/rid/O-8684-2016) how :

• a defect in the apoptosis of the eosinophil leucocyte contributes to cell accumulation and to bronchial wall remodeling in asthma (PhD),
• apoptotic and inflammatory caspases are activated (post doc),
• nuclear receptors (retinoic acid receptors and PPARs) participate in the alteration of airways wall architecture (CR2),
• the seven ligands of EGFR are differentially involved in the changes of kidney structure during acute injury and chronic nephropathies (CR1)
• neutrophil leucocytes and IgA anomalies contribute to kidney structural lesions during IgA nephropathy (CRCN). 

In 2017, I was appointed head of BISCEm (https://www.unilim.fr/biscem/), a technology platform for life sciences of Limoges University and Hospital. This platform, composed of 23 people, offers services in the field of rodent models, of cell and tissue analyses and of molecular analyses. BISCEm became a facility of Inserm and CNRS in 2020.