Further to the work of Saadi Kochbin and Sophie Rousseaux’s team, it is now up to Émilie Montellier to focus on the similarities between sperm cells and cancer cells. This 27 year old researcher from Grenoble has been awarded by the ARC Foundation (Foundation for the research against cancer).
Émilie Montellier has just been awarded with Hélène Stark’s prize for young researchers in cancerology, given by the ARC Foundation. In her fourth year of thesis at Albert Bonniot’s Institute in Grenoble, under the supervision of Saadi Khochbin, research director at the CNRS, the young student analyzed similarities between the production of sperm and the process leading to cancer. Indeed, some genes involved in the process of sperm formation are expressed within the cancer cells of the lung but through an abnormal way. Genes that make the tumour more aggressive. Why making this link between cancer cells and sperm ? These two types of cells share a common property : their ability to migrate within the human organism. The young researcher’s work meet the one conducted months ago by Saadi Khochbin and Sophie Rousseaux’s team. The scientists had researched for specific genes of sperm in the cancer cells. They had found 26 associated to very aggressive tumours. The scientific prize, won by Émilie Montellier in the Thesis category, worth 3,500 EUR, will enable her to carry on her work and better understand the DNA modifications in the cancer cell and the abnormal activation of genes arising therefrom. The 27 year old researcher from Grenoble has already presented her work in conferences in France, even at University and at Riken’s Institute in Tokyo.Translation by Sandra Bailly, Translator / Desktop Publishing specialist
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