CV Science

Michel SALZET Professor

Course and current status

EDUCATION

1998-2003 Member of the Institut Universitaire de France Junior, then Honorary position
1998-2000  Senior Scientist at the Mind Body Institute of Beth Israel, Harvard Medical School, USA
1993-1994 Post-doctoral Fellow Institute of Neurosciences, College at Old Westbury, USA
31/05/1995 Habilitation for directing research (HDR) in Natural Sciences, University Lille 1, France
03/02/1993 PhD in Life Science and Health, University Lille 1, France,
1990 National Service
1989 Master degree of Life Science and Health, University of Lille 1, France, Honors

PROFESSIONAL CAREER              

2014-present Distinguish Professor (PRCE2), Biology Department, University Lille, France
2009-2014 Distinguish Professor (PRCE1), Biology Department, University Lille 1, France
2002-2009 Full Professor Class I (PR1), Biology Department, University Lille 1, France
1997-2002 Full Professor Class II (PR2), Biology Department, University Lille 1, France
1995-1997 Associate Professor, Biology Department, University of Lille 1, France

HONORS AND AWARDS

2018 Force Awards Award, regional council, Haut de France
2015 Cutting Edge Technology Award MATWIN International Board, SpiderMass Technology
2008 North region Innovation Price of the National Institute for Intellectual Property (INPI)
2003 Great Price of Science of the Society of Sciences, Agriculture and Arts of Lille, France
1998 Junior Member of Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France
1993 Wicart-Hagenstien Medal of the Society of Sciences, Agriculture and Arts of Lille, France

Scientific summary

Brief synthesis

Professor Michel Salzet is the director of the unit since 1998 and in 2015 of the Inserm 1192 unit PRISM : Proteomique, Réponse Inflammatoire et Spectrometrie de Masse (http://www.laboratoire-prism.fr) at the University of Lille. Professor Michel Salzet received his PhD in Life Sciences at the University of Lille in 1993, where he has the Chair of Immunology since 1997. After his PhD, Professor Michel Salzet worked as Associate Researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences at College of Old Westbury (USA), and was subsequently nominated as Senior Research Scientist at the Beth Israel, Mind Body Institute of Harvard Medical School (1998). He became a member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 1998 until 2003. Professor Salzet is an expert in the field of clinical proteomic. Professor Michel Salzet is also co-founder of the Start-Up IMABIOTECH (2009), Clic-Imaging platform (2013) and in 2019, Y-Med Company Professor Michel Salzet currently holds 16 patents. He creates the Proteomics Master’s Degree Program of Lille (2000), became the director of the Doctoral School of Biology and Health of Lille (1998-2002), the responsible of the Genopole program for University of Lille (1998-2003) and from 2013 to 2017, responsible of the International relationship, Department of Biology, University Lille.

At the national level, he was Member of the Board ‘DVS Biomarkers and Companion Tests’ (2015-2017), Scientific Delegate at the Institute of Ecology & Environment of the CNRS (2009-2012), Member of the Scientific Council of the French Natural History Museum (MNHN), Paris (2009-2012) and since 1999, he is Member of the National Council of University (CNU) section 68 and expert for the AERES and HCERES. At the international level, he was Member of the Governing Board, European Graduates School of Neurosciences Euron (2011-2016), Member of the Managing group for personalized medicine for European citizen (2009-2012) and Member of the Core Group of LESC & LFUI of European Sciences Foundation (2009-2012).

As international expert, he was Remote Evaluator (2016) then Vice Chair (2017), H2020 RIA FET-OPEN, Panel B : Biology. Since 2002, he is Remote Evaluator, International : 5th PRDC, DFG, HMRF, LECMA-AFI-ISAO, FWO (Board member), NWO, Austrian Science Fund, NSF, MRC, Health and Medical Research Fund, ARC, FNRS, ISF, IBSF, Marsden Found of Science, CRSNG, FRSQ, FCI (Board member), NIH, NIDA and National : CNRS, SESAME, ANR, ANRT, Biodiversity Foundation.

Research Summary

Over the thirty past years, Professor Michel Salzet research activities are dedicated to neuro and onco-immunology through proteomics approaches. He started on the immune response modulation by endocrine factors such as opioids, cannabinoids, morphine and estrogens, and the characterization of their respective receptors in invertebrates and mammals.

He pursued his work by studying the characterization of novel family of antimicrobial peptides which are issued from neuropeptides precursors in leeches and mammals, as well as the understanding of their involvement in the immune response. Therefore, he performed with his collaborators the characterization of the immune factors and to study their function in the brain regeneration of the leech focusing on sensing receptors (TLR, NLR, RLR), their signaling pathway and the involvement of antimicrobial peptides. Then he identified the enzymes involved in neuropeptide precursors processing in immune cells, especially macrophages.

He evidenced the presence of proprotein convertases family in immune effectors organs. Among the member of this family, he studied the role of the proprotein convertase PC1/3 (PCSK1) in the pro-inflammatory factors secretion from macrophages and investigates its intracellular signaling and trafficking showing that PC1/3 is a key regulator of TLR4 and TLR9 traffickiing. Then, he investigates this enzyme in clinical problematics, through PC1/3 inhibition in macrophages. The objective is to reverse within the tumor microenvironment the macrophages pro-tumoral phenotype to anti-tumoral one through PC1/3 inactivation. Indeed, PC1/3 KO macrophages have been shown to produce anti-tumor factors under LPS, ODN CpG or Placlitaxel stimulation as well as chemoattractants of T helper lymphocytes switching the immune response to TH1.

In parallel, he developed modern biochemistry approaches namely proteomics for the large-scale identification of proteins, MALDI mass spectrometry imaging to obtain their localization from tissue sections and bridged strategies to get large scale identification from limited area on tissue sections (or spatially-resolved microproteomics). Very interestingly, these developments have led to get interested in the characterization of proteins which were not referenced in the protein databanks.

In collaboration with Professor Xavier Roucou, they evidence the existence of the so-called “alternative proteins” (or ghost proteins) issued from alternative open-reading frames and non-coding regions of mature RNA. Using in silico approaches, more than 10.000 alternatives RNA have been identified and alternative proteins issued also. The function of these ghost proteins is now beginning to be investigated especially in cancer.

Finally, he participates with Professor Isabelle Fournier in the development of a novel instrument for real time in vivo proteomic with clinic applications for guiding surgery.