CV Science

Valerie URBACH Group Leader at IMRB, PhD Cell and Molecular Physiology

Course and current status

FROM ION TRANSPORTS TO THE RESOLUTION OF INFLAMMATION

After obtaining her PhD in 1993 at the University of Nice and Sophia Antipolis, in France, she spent 7 years as a post-doctoral fellow at University College Cork funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland and by the French CF Association, Vaincre la Mucoviscidose. In 1998, she obtained a Wellcome Trust Project grant on “the autocrine role of CFTR”. This work led on to the award of a Wellcome Trust Advanced Fellowship which allowed her to return to France, in Montpellier.

In 2004, she was successful for a permanent appointment as a researcher of the French National Institute of Health, INSERM, where she has continued to work in the area of CF and lung disease. She obtained funding for translational studies on the regulation of airway epithelial secretory functions. Using electrophysiology and advanced confocal microscopy techniques, her research has revealed novel effects of two endogenous specialized proresolving mediators, the lipoxin A4 and the resolvin D1 on airway epithelium function.

In 2010, Dr Urbach has obtained a 3 years leave-of-absence from INSERM to pursue this project at the National Children Research Centre (NCRC) at Crumlin Hospital in Dublin with an honorary lecturer appointment at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Dr Urbach has now returned to France at the Mondor Institute for Biomedical Research (IMRB) in Paris where she is directing a research group focused on the resolution of inflammation in airway diseases.

Scientific summary

ACTIVE RESOLUTION OF INFLAMMATION IN AIRWAY DISEASES

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common lethal genetic disease among Caucasians, and is characterized by progressive lung damage leading to early death. In healthy individuals, the body secretes a thin layer of fluid, which lines the airways and helps to fight infection by clearing mucus. The volume and composition of this fluid is tightly controlled. The gene mutation in CF leads to abnormal salt and water levels in this fluid, adversely affecting its protective functions. This leads to difficulty in clearing infection from the lungs with resultant infection and inflammation – the cause of lung damage over time.

Dr Urbach's team and other have shown that lipoxin A4, a member of the specialized proresolving mediator family that is normally synthetized in healthy lungs to fight inflammation was abnormally produced in the airways of individuals with CF, even in absence of bacterial or viral infection.

Her current research program is based on the hypothesis that the specialized proresolving mediators (lipoxins, resolvins, protectins and maresins) exert beneficial effects on airway epithelial functions through enhanced mucociliary clearance and epithelial repair. She is pursuing two main research axes : (i) the impact of the specialized proresolving mediators on major physiological functions controlled by the airway epithelium,  (ii) the abnormal specialized proresolving mediators biosynthesis in airway diseases. These projects use a range of electrophysiological and advanced imaging technologies as well as molecular biology and interactomique approaches applied to human airway epithelial primary cultures grown from biopsies or nasal brushings.

Her recent work revealed a sex dependancy of proresolving lipid mediators biosynthesis that could explain the increased vulnerability of women with CF. https://theconversation.com/mucoviscidose-pourquoi-les-femmes-sont-elles-plus-vulnerables-que-les-hommes-195467 

More generaly, her work has the potential to open up innovative therapy in chronic airway diseases including CF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d84nALA-YNU