In June 2024, the SIRIC ILIAD launched a call for projects aimed at young researchers in biology-health or social sciences-epidemiology-public health.
Spearheaded by the Junior Scientific Committee (JSC), this initiative aims to support young doctors and researchers in developing emerging research projects, while promoting an interdisciplinary approach between medicine and science.
After evaluation by the scientific committee, the SIRIC ILIAD selected two projects:
The MURIEL project, entitled ‘Multidimensional Understanding of the cellulaR ecosystem In young women brEast cancers to decipher its Landscapes’, is being led by Eloïse GRASSET, a CNRS researcher at the CRCI2NA, and Marie ROBERT, a medical oncologist at the ICO. It is part of the DECIPHER programme and WP6 of the SIRIC ILIAD.
This research project focuses on triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer, which mainly affects young women under the age of 40. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the differences in tumour ecosystems between (i) nulliparous patients (women who have never given birth) and multiparous patients (women who have given birth several times), and (ii) young and elderly patients (aged 55-70). This analysis could will be carried out by setting up a biobank of treatment-naive triple-negative breast cancer samples from the 3 groups studied (young nulliparous and multiparous patients, and elderly patients).
The project, entitled ‘Deregulation of NSD2, epigenetic alterations of the H3K36me2 mark and functional consequences in mantle cell lymphoma’, is being led by Antonin PAPIN, a teacher-researcher at the CRCI2NA, and Benoït TESSOULIN, a haematologist at Nantes University Hospital. It is also part of the DECIPHER programme and WP5 of the SIRIC ILIAD.
This research project focuses on mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a mature B haemopathy characterised by frequent relapses, for which new therapeutic strategies need to be developed. He is exploring the alteration in NSD2, which is present in 20% of patients and plays a protumoral role. The aim is to understand the molecular mechanisms leading to over-activation of transcriptional programmes, which may be involved in resistance to therapeutic agents. This knowledge could lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies specifically for MCL, but also for other B haemopathies such as multiple myeloma (MM).
