CV Science

Rachida GUENNOUN Director of Research at Inserm France. PhD University Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6

Course and current status

- Director of Research at Inserm; the French instiute of health and medical research.

- Team 1 " Steroids and Nervous System " at U 1195 Inserm and University Paris Sacay University Paris Sud

Researcher ID: F-2420-2011

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9219-7300

Scientific summary

I am studying with my team the neuroprotective effects of steroids in particular progesterone in the brain and spinal cord using different experimental models (Stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, motoneurone degeneration). My main emphasis is on the biosynthesis, the receptors, signalling pathways and target genes of steroids in the nervous system: their role in neuroprotection and neuroregeneration. Our work on the mechanisms that underlie the neuroprotective effects of progesterone, suggests that the increase in neurosteroid synthesis may be part of the mechanisms by which cells cope with injury and that different mechanisms of progesterone signalling are activated in the intact and injured nervous system. Our recent results showed that nuclear progesterone receptors (PR) play a key role in the neuroprotective mechanisms after ischemic stroke and that PR deficiency increase the vulnerability of brain to ischemic injury.