CV Science

Pierre Busson MD, PhD, ScD, CNRS Director of research

Course and current status

Dr. Pierre BUSSON, MD, PhD, ScD

 CNRS director of Research (DR1 CNRS) - Born on July 29, 1956

Team  “Host-tumor interactions in Head and Neck carcinomas”

                                                                                                        

Certified by HCERES in 2019.

UMR 9018 METSY – CNRS/Gustave Roussy                                                                                                                   94805 Villejuif – FRANCE

Tel: +33 1 42 11 45 83                                                                                                                 Email: Pierre.BUSSON@gustaveroussy.fr

Orcid number : 0000-0003-1027-3400

 

 

 Education  

2001 Certification of supervisory ability (HDR – ScD)

1990  PhD in Biochemistry/Virology – University of Paris VII

1983 - 1984   Master of Biochemistry and certificate of General Virology (Pasteur Institute)         

1973-1983     Medical Studies (Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris)

 

Professional cursus

2019               CNRS director of Research (DR1) – Gustave Roussy

2008               CNRS director of Research (DR2) – Gustave Roussy   

1992-2007     CNRS researcher - Gustave Roussy

1990-1992     Post-doc, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA     

1983-1989     PhD student including 2 years as Inserm junior researcher (1988-89)

1979-1983     Paris Hospital residency (radiotherapy, critical care medicine, oncology)

 

Awards

2015: Co-recipient of the Matwin 2015 award for the "best project answering an unmet medical need"

2012: excellence premium awarded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

2011: entitled with a Translational Research hospital convention (Aviesan)

 

Publications 106 publications  (99 articles in pair-reviewed journals and 7 book chapters) - 6268 citations including 2125 since 2013 - H index 43 (24 since 2013)(Google scholar).

I am the editor of a book published by Landes/Springer on Nasopharyngeal Carcinomas (2013 - ISBN 978-1-4614-5947-1 – more than 8000 chapter downloads between 2013 and 2016).

 

Patents  

 PCT/IB03/04922 - PCT/FR2009/000409 - PCT/FR12/000550

W0 2015/185875 A2 - 50% of the inventive parts for our team - licensed to the company HiFiBiO since September 2018.

Recent Funding

 INCa-DGOS grant for translational research, 2017-2020

Bristol-Myers-Squibb Foundation for Research in Immuno-Oncology, 2017 and 2018

Incentive grant from Idex Paris-Saclay (Health Sciences Dpt), 2017

Prematuration grant from Idex Paris-Saclay, 2015-2016

Teaching activities

 In charge of a 20 hour course on « Infectious agents and human Cancers » since 2005 (Master 2 of Oncology at Paris-Saclay university)

Various teaching activities at Gustave Roussy and Paris-Saclay university.

 Scientific supervision

Sixteen master 2 students

Fourteen PhD students: 12 theses completed (one in 1992, 1994 and 2001 not listed in https://www.thèse.fr)(2005, two in 2009, one in 2011, two in 2013, one in 2015, 2016, 2017) – 2 theses in progress.

Six post-doctoral researchers (1994-95, 1998, 2000-2001, 2003-2004, 2014-15, 2017-2018)

Research animation and management

 Elected member of the Research governing board at  Gustave Roussy from 2006 to 2009

Member of the steering committee of the « Herpesvirus and Cancer network» from 2006 to 2010

Organizer and/or scientific committee member for preparation of international workshops on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma from 2003 to 2015.

Contributions to the Gordon Research Conferences on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (Hong Kong, session discussion leader in 2016 and speaker in 2018).

Editorial activity  

 Academic editor for Plos-One since 2011

Member of the editorial board for Frontiers in Immunology (section Tumor Immunity)

Ad hoc reviewer for various international scientific journals (JNCI, Blood, PNAS, Cancer Research, Journal of Virology, Oncogene, Journal of Pathology, American Journal of Pathology etc…)

Research assessment and expertise

External reviewer for the Research Grants Council of Hong-Kong (2003 to 2018), FRS/FNRS (Belgium 2012 to 2018), Paris-Hospitals (2005, 2007, 2013), French National Research Agency (ANR 2010 to 2012) and various public and private funding bodies in France and abroad  (Bloodwise, UK; Cancer Research UK; KWF Kankerbestrijding, Holland; Aquitaides; Alsace-Biovalley; Cancéropôle-Ile de France; Clara; Comue Grenoble-Alpes; Finovi; Gefluc; Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer; Société Française de Dermatologie).

Member of selection committees for positions of hospital doctors in research laboratories sponsored by CNRS/Polytechnique/Pasteur (2013 and 2014) and Inserm (2018).

Current collaborations 

• In France :  Dr O. Dellis, Inserm U757, Orsay; Dr E. Piaggio, institut Curie, Paris;  Pr N. Hildebrandt, I2BC, Orsay.
• International : Pr Udo Kontny, Aachen university, Germany; Pr Jiang Li, SYSUCC, Guangzhou, China; Pr Cliona Rooney, Baylor College, Houston, USA; Pr Charles Dimitroff, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
  

Scientific summary

For years, most contributions of my group were on virus-cell and host-tumor interactions in Epstein-Barr virus-associated nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC). This led us to demonstrate the contribution of galectin-9 (gal-9) in the immune evasion of NPC cells (Klibi et al., Blood 113: 1957-66, 2009). In the following years, similar immunosuppressive effects of tumor or stromal gal-9 have been shown by other groups in other types of malignancies including pancreatic, renal and lung carcinomas as well as melanomas (see for example Daley et al., Nature Med 23: 556-567, 2017; Enninga et al., J. Pathol. 245 : 468-477, 2018). In order to investigate the role of gal-9 in host-tumor relationships using an in vivo model, we have derived murine tumor lines knocked-out for gal-9 (isogenic CT26 and MB49 KO for gal-9). We currently investigate their sensitivity to immune effectors in vitro and in vivo. This project is supported by a grant from the BMS Foundation. Simultaneously, we produce, characterize and develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies aiming at neutralization of galectin-9 and restoration of anti-tumor immunity. This is done in collaboration with a biotech company, HiFiBiO (patent W0 2015/185875 A2 licensed to HiFiBiO since September 2018).

Leveraging on our previous work on circulating viral microRNAs in patients bearing EBV-related nasopharyngeal carcinomas, we have investigated circulating tumor microRNAs as a source of biomarkers for patients bearing ovarian carcinomas. We have shown that the positive or negative variations of miR200b concentration in the plasma, before and after the primary treatment of these patients, are predictive of the disease-free survival (Kapetanakis et al., Oncotarget 6 : 36815-24, 2015). One important aim of our current work is to confirm the value of this biomarker on a large, multicentric, prospective series of patients. This project done in collaboration with a number of clinical departments at Gustave Roussy and in Paris hospitals is supported by a translational research contract of the "Institut National du Cancer” (INCa) and DGOS.