Nathalie Heuzé-Vourc’h, Research Professor, Inserm

Nathalie Heuzé-Vourc’h, Research Director at INSERM, the National Institute of Biomedical Research in France. She leads a multidisciplinary team in the Research Centre for Respiratory Diseases (CEPR, INSERM U1100) in Tours, dedicated to ‘Aerosol therapy and Biotherapeutics for Respiratory Diseases’. After graduating with her Ph.D. in oncology in France, she focused her research on lung diseases and obtained a postdoctoral position in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine (Dr Steven M. Dubinett) at UCLA, California. She gained interest in biotherapeutics working in a start-up (Agensys Inc., Santa Monica, California) developing anticancer monoclonal antibodies and was recruited in 2005 by INSERM as a young research scientist to continue working on this topic. She is currently supervising several projects on the multifaceted aspects of the delivery of biotherapeutics -mostly monoclonal antibodies- by inhalation to treat respiratory diseases, from formulation to preclinical safety, with both academic and private partners. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She is one of the European opinion leaders on inhalation of biotherapeutics and serves regularly as a consultant to the pharma industry on aerosol therapy.