Bertrand Mollereau, aged 48, professor at ENS de Lyon, has just been appointed senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). "Since the second year of biology, I have been fascinated by the study of cell death mechanisms that are often deregulated in pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases, AIDS and cancer".
After a thesis focused on the study of the Deregulation of cell death (apoptosis) in the immune system in humans (in Paris) Bertrand Mollereau crossed the Atlantic to do his post-doc at Rockefeller University and New York University, and then worked as assistant professor at Rockefeller University. He spent 10 years in the United States where he began to learn about the genetics and development of Drosophila and became interested in cell death in the retina of Drosophila. In September 2006, he returned to France, at ENS de Lyon, as a teacher with a specific objective: to develop a research team within the laboratory of Biology and Cell modelling (LBMC). His goal: To study the mechanisms of cell death using Drosophila as a model. And of course to teach: Bertrand Mollereau headed the Department of Biology from 2010 to 2013.
The "Apoptosis and Neurogenetics" team hosted by Bertrand Mollereau comprises of 8 people. It received the ATIP and the Foundation for medical research label. "Our approaches have taken a new dimension since 2009 with the discovery of the importance of reticulum stress in retinal pathologies and Parkinson's disease." Our work also highlighted the importance of lipid metabolism in retinal pathologies. We have finally discovered the importance of differential regulation of p53 isoforms in apoptosis, proliferation, autophagy, regulated necrosis and essential processes in the carcinogenesis.
Currently their research focuses on:

• On mechanisms that lead to neuronal death in Parkinson's disease,
• The role of lipid metabolism and glial neuronal/cell interaction in neuronal survival
• And the study of the regulation of cell death by necrosis, a cell death process that has long been mistakenly considered as accidental.

IUF members
To be a IUF member, you have to be a research teacher and have been selected by an international jury for the exceptional quality of his research. In practical terms, this allows a two-third exoneration of their teaching expenses, a bonus and a budget allocation.
You can be a junior or a senior member. There are also guest members (foreign academics). Senior members are appointed for five years, renewable once, junior members for five years non-renewable. The Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) is administratively constituted as a Department of the Ministry responsible for Higher Education and Research.
Another nomination
Congratulations go to Emanuela Mattioli, director of the Lyon Geology Laboratory (LGL-TPE), who has just been named IUF Senior. Emanuela Mattioli is a professor at Lyon 1.