Past work
I studied at the University of Lille in Life and Health Sciences, specializing in Immunology, and obtained my PhD in 1997 at the Pasteur Institute of Lille, under the supervision of Dr J. Pestel at INSERM U416. My work aimed at establishing a novel humanized mouse model for studying allergic asthma. Since then, I have been implicated in research on allergic and respiratory diseases.
I then joined the team of Pr EW Gelfand at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center (Denver, USA), to pursue my work on asthma, focusing on the mechanisms involved in the development and resolution of bronchial hyperresponsiveness.
In 2001, I was recruited by INSERM as a Research Scientist (Chargée de Recherche), and worked in INSERM U416 which became the team “Pulmonary Immunity” at the Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille (CIIL, https://www.ciil.fr/) in 2010. I led a research group dedicated to my main project, which investigated the regulation of pulmonary inflammation in asthma. The group included PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and one technician. While initially focused on allergic asthma, my research has increasingly shifted in recent years toward severe asthma and the mechanisms underlying its exacerbations, which are largely driven by viral infections. Given the critical role of innate immunity in responding to microbial and viral agents, I developed a particular interest in natural killer (NK) cells. I hypothesized that NK cells, as a heterogeneous population, could either amplify or suppress allergic lung responses depending on their microenvironment. This led me to initiate a project on the Role of Natural Killer Cells in Asthma, exploring their functional diversity and regulatory potential in asthma and viral-induced exacerbations.
Current work
Currently, I am investigating Natural killer cells as biomarkers and targets for the treatment of viral exacerbations in severe asthma, a project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
In parallel, I embarked on a new scientific challenge and joined the vibrant and stimulating research team at the ARTHEMIS Laboratory, in January 2025. Building on my extensive experience in pulmonary immunology, I now develop a project centered on the lung as both a source and a target organ in rheumatoid arthritis. The lung is the most common site of extra-articular involvement in rheumatoid arthritis and may also contribute to its initiation as the primary site of anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) production. The lung is also a privileged site for microchimerism, which plays a role in the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2327-1095