This year marks the 20th annual Inserm Prize ceremony, to take place on Tuesday December 10 at Collège de France in celebration of six researchers and engineers whose achievements have helped raise the level of scientific excellence at the Institute, in the service of health for all.

“By paying tribute to its talented scientists for the 20th year running, Inserm celebrates the passion and commitment of the women and men who represent the diversity and excellence of our research, in the service of health for all”, declares Gilles Bloch, Inserm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

The Inserm Grand Prize this year is awarded to Éric Gilson, whose research has contributed to major advances in the biology of aging, and who is Director and founder of the Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging in addition to Scientific Coordinator of the Inserm AgeMed research program.

Éric Gilson, Inserm Grand Prize

From a very early stage in his career, Éric Gilson has been passionate about the knowledge frontier in chromosomes. His desire to question scientific dogmas has led him to play a decisive part in elucidating the role of telomeres – repeated DNA sequences found at the extremity of the chromosomes. It is to him that we owe the discovery of the protective protein caps that contribute to chromosome stability. Far from restricting himself to fundamental research, Gilson wanted to link his research field to more general issues related to the biology of aging and cancer. In 2012 he founded the Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging in Nice, with the support of Inserm, CNRS and Université de Nice. He continues to direct this institute, which was one of the first in the world to combine cancer and aging in a common biology and which continues to attract high-caliber researchers from France and abroad. Since its launch in 2016, Gilson is also the Scientific Coordinator of the Inserm research program AgeMed, which brings together researchers from all walks of life to study the aging process in its entirety.

Mathilde Touvier, Research Prize

The Research Prize is awarded to researchers, lecturer-researchers and clinician-researchers whose work has made a significant impact on fundamental research, clinical and therapeutic research and public health research. Inserm Research Director at the Center for Research on Epidemiology and Statistics, Mathilde Touvier leads the Inserm Nutritional Epidemiology Team. There she has contributed to the development of the Nutri-Score nutritional labelling, rolled out in France and various European countries, which represents a true step forward in the promotion of good health. She also coordinates the NutriNet-Santé study – the world’s first nutrition research cohort – in which she leads research to shed light on the link between the consumption of ultra-processed products and the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Michel Sadelain, International Prize

In line with the Institute’s long-standing tradition of international cooperation, the International Prize rewards the careers of researchers established abroad. This year it is awarded to Michel Sadelain, Director of the Center for Cell Engineering
at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Fascinated by the future of gene transfer, this physician-researcher has spent twenty years developing a revolutionary cancer-fighting technique that improves the efficacy of T cells in immunotherapy procedures. His principle? Take the patient’s own immune cells, manipulate their genetic heritage, and then inject them back!

Jean-François Delfraissy, Prize of Honor

The Prize of Honor acknowledges the career of an eminent scientific figure. Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), is awarded this prize for his research and discoveries in infectious diseases, in addition to his commitments to fighting AIDS and to its patients. Implicated from the late 1980s in the fight against the HIV epidemic that shook the medical world, he set up the Virus, Neuron and Immunity research unit at Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital and created the first AIDS patient cohorts, bringing fundamental and clinical research together. At the helm of ANRS from 2005 to 2016, Delfraissy was also Director of the Aviesan Immunology, Inflammation, Infectiology and Microbiology Multi-Organization Thematic Institute, and leader of the Ebola Task Force in 2014.

Hervé Chneiweiss, Opecst-Inserm Prize for Social Impact

With this prize, the Institute rewards efforts to promote research and the ability to be truly in dialogue with societal expectations and citizens’ health questions. Chairman of the Inserm Ethics Committee, Hervé Chneiweiss is renowned for his work on astrocytes, whose functioning he has elucidated. His research, at the frontier of neurology and genetics, very quickly led him to develop an interest in bioethics and the place of science in society. Adviser to the cabinet of the French Research Minister from 2000 to 2002, his responsibilities involved the initial revision of the bioethics laws. Both Inserm and the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Options (Opecst), of which he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, wish to pay tribute to the career of an individual who, elected Chairman of the Unesco International Bioethics Committee in July, now upholds this commitment beyond our borders.

Chiara Guerrera, Innovation Prize

Research is also comprised of and supported by engineers, technicians and administrative staff: the Innovation Prize is dedicated to them. Originally from Italy, Chiara Guerrera joined the brand new university proteomics platform of the Necker federative research structure (Inserm/APHP/Université de Paris) as a Research Engineer in 2006. She worked on developing this young structure into a very high level platform that not only offers technical assistance in line with the researchers’ needs but also the appropriate strategic and methodological support. Her team has participated in identifying biomarkers that are decisive in the understanding of serious diseases such as cystinuria and cystic fibrosis.

© Emeraude Escape

Inserm’s first ever escape game, Operation Cortex, an immersive experience to raise awareness of health research, opens its doors to the general public on November 15. This new public interaction format fulfils the institute’s desire to promote scientific culture and enable visitors to discover its laboratories.

For more than fifty years, Inserm has worked daily to improve individual health through science. It participates in bringing knowledge and scientific culture to all citizens, with the use of innovative formats.

In Operation Cortex, players are transported to the year 2064, to a future in which Inserm scientists have succeeded in developing an artificial brain dedicated to the study of sensory perceptions, sleep, diseases, etc. A tool that offers exceptional prospects for the advancement of knowledge. But when they visit the laboratory behind this scientific feat, the players will find that things will not go entirely to plan… they will need to work their brains hard if they are to get out!

For Inserm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gilles Bloch: “It is important that the public visit our laboratories so they see for themselves the work being done on a daily basis in health research, so they can see the modern methods and cutting-edge technologies being developed. This escape game is our way of interacting with the public in a bold and immersive way. “

Operation Cortex lasts 45 minutes and is open to everyone from 10 years of age (children must be accompanied by adults). Following the game, participants have the opportunity to dialog with the Inserm researchers in charge of hosting them. In Paris, a number of daytime and evening sessions have already taken place in four laboratories this month. Outside Paris, sessions will be held in various regional cities starting from January 2020. Participation is free, but participants are required to sign up first. We will publish the various opening dates on our Facebook page and Inserm.fr website as and when they become available.

View our teaser video and poster

©Ambre Rolland / Inserm

If there is one area with overwhelming scientific evidence for its health benefits, it is physical activity. Over the last few years, Inserm has become a world leader in the field of sport and health research. Here we provide an overview of recent work at the Institute to mark the Sport Unlimitech festival for sport and innovation, which is being held in Lyon from September 19-21, 2019, in partnership with Inserm.

Physical activity in the treatment of chronic disease

The crucial role played by physical activity in the care pathway and treatment of chronic disease was confirmed this year by an Inserm collective expert review that analyzed over 1800 scientific articles. This showed that appropriate physical activity is beneficial regardless of a person’s disease, age, or health status. The expert review looked at the conditions for obtaining therapeutic benefit, and highlighted the importance of tailoring physical activity to suit the medical needs, abilities, and limitations of each individual

Find out more about this expert review and its recommendations

Performance: is it all in the head?

From the study of emotions, to focus and movement, neuroscience is set to revolutionize sport. How can it improve sports performance? How can the muscles of the brain be built up to overcome its limitations and increase its power ever further? Neuroscientists are looking into the exact conditions most conducive to optimal concentration in elite sport. Inserm researcher Jean-Philippe Lachaux’s work in this area uses results produced in the laboratory alongside the experiences of international athletes, obtained through so-called “explicitation” interviews. These interviews allow for detailed analysis—sometimes over several hours—of an athlete’s mental life at a very specific moment of performance (such as saving a penalty, or during a climb).

Innovation in injury prevention

Sports injuries are a constant concern for millions of people, whether they practice extreme sports or team sports. How can they be better diagnosed? How can technology help athletes to protect themselves from injury? Led by Thierry Pozzo, Inserm researchers are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve sports training and rehabilitation after injury. This research group is developing solutions that use AI tools and a number of advances in cognitive science to support motor learning and relearning after injury, and sensory and motor rehabilitation.

Technology doping: an inevitable future?

Will technology transform athletes into superpowered machines? Will enhanced humans break new boundaries in performance? Advances in robotics make it possible to envisage overcoming disabilities, or even improving some functions in able-bodied individuals. But far from the “cyborgs” of popular imagination, the devices that are currently available (such as prosthetics, exoskeletons, and wearable robots) are a long way from making technology doping a reality. At present, they are useful only in very specific situations. Instead, the key issue for research is to advance understanding of human-robot interaction in order to improve the performance of existing devices, or to invent new ones. At Inserm, Agnès Roby-Brami’s research focuses on human motor skills and motor disability, and in particular on assistance and rehabilitation robotic devices for patients with brain or spinal damage.

More information on this project

Beyond the body

From extreme situations to disability and elite performance, scientific research is constantly analyzing the body, its limitations, and its adaptability. It studies athletes who are pushing back the biological limitations of their bodies by using increasingly cutting-edge innovations. How far can they go? These questions lie at the heart of the work led by Samuel Vergès, Inserm researcher and coordinator of the “Expédition 5300” project. In early 2019 his team spent six weeks in the world’s highest settlement, situated in Peru at an altitude of 5,300 m, to study how its inhabitants have adapted physiologically to extreme living conditions, but also to analyze the specific altitude-related health problems they face.

More information on this project

©Inserm

Inserm Research Director Alain Eychène is taking the helm at the French National Cancer Institute’s Research and Innovation division. In this new role, he will also head the Aviesan Multi-Organization Institute (ITMO) for cancer[1] and will manage Inserm’s Cancer institute.

Inserm Research Director Alain Eychène is the team leader for the “Signaling & Cancer Progression” research team at the Institut Curie. The major advances made by his laboratory include identifying and describing the BRAF gene, which mutates frequently in several types of human cancer, and discovering the significance of this oncogene’s role in melanoma progression.

From 2008 to 2012, Alain Eychène belonged to France’s National Committee for Scientific Research (CoNRS) and, from 2009 to 2012, was a member of the Scientific Commission at the Institut Curie’s research center. As Deputy Director of Science at the CNRS Biological Sciences Institute, he was responsible for oncological research and was a deputy director at ITMO Cancer until 2018. In his new position as head of the research and innovation division at the French National Cancer Institute, he is also taking over the management of AVIESAN’s ITMO Cancer.

“Research is one of the cornerstones in the fight against cancer. As the ten-year anti-cancer strategy to be prepared and implemented by the Institute is emerging, Alain Eychène and his teams will have to confront a number of challenges to further our understanding of the mechanisms of cancer development, particularly in pediatric patients and those with poor prognoses. Pooling the efforts of French National Cancer Institute researchers and Inserm researchers is a better way to rise to these challenges.” Prof. Norbert Ifrah, president of the French National Cancer Institute.

“Inserm is very excited about Alain Eychène’s new position. To fully assess the extent of the complexity of cancer pathologies, and to figure out how to confront the multitude of scientific challenges that arise in the cancer field, it is crucial to maintain a superior level of fundamental scientific research. Alain Eychène will guide ITMO Cancer along this path.” Dr. Gilles Bloch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inserm. President of the Aviesan alliance.

“The presidents of the French National Cancer Institute and Inserm are placing their trust in a biologist with a background in fundamental research, which is a strong message from both institutions to all researchers involved in the battle against cancer in France. I will attempt to build upon the experience of my predecessors in AVIESAN’s ITMO Cancer to take this research forward and bring its results to patients as quickly as possible.” Alain Eychène, head of Research and Innovation at the French National Cancer Institute and head of the AVIESAN multi-organization institute for cancer.

[1] The purpose of the Multi-Organization Institute for Cancer (ITMO Cancer) at AVIESAN (national alliance for life and health sciences) is to unite the research teams studying cancerous pathologies, thereby bringing scientific advances to people suffering from cancer, ensuring the excellence and competitive nature of research in France, and improving coordination among researchers by encouraging interdisciplinary discussion.

Sans titre, tirage 60x50cm ©Diane Hymans, 2019 La recherche de l’art #8

Inserm is reaching out to a new audience among the general public this summer by taking part in two events that bring together art and science in a mutually enriching way: the 8th Recherche de l’art (Art of Research) exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles, in partnership with the École nationale supérieure de la photographie, and the 10th edition of the binôme program at the Avignon Festival, led by the Les sens des mots theater company.

Inserm is inviting the general public to come and discover a different side to medical research at two arts events in which it is taking part: La recherche de l’art #8 and the 10th edition of the binôme program.

These partnerships look at biomedical research through the lenses of photography and theater, transforming it into artistic material and offering a new vision of science that is accessible to all. To mark these summer events, spread over July and August some of the photographic work on display will also be showcased through the Inserm Instagram account.

 La recherche de l’art #8

Since 2011, a partnership between Inserm and the École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles (ENSP) has brought medical research together with photography. Recent ENSP graduates complete a 3 to 4-week photographic residency in an Inserm laboratory, turning it into a center of photographic investigation in which art is used to discover science and present it in a different way. Their work will be shown at the Rencontres d’Arles, culminating in the exhibition La recherche de l’art #8 and in a publication.

For the eighth year of the program, Inserm welcomed 4 artists in residence: Hélène Bellenger (in Tours, Unit 1253 Imaging and Brain), Quentin Carrierre (in Dijon, Unit 1093 Cognition, Action and Sensorimotor Plasticity), Diane Hymans (in Nice, Unit 1091, Valrose Institute of Biology), and Pauline Rousseau (in Paris, Unit 970, Center for Cardiovascular Research at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital). Their work will be exhibited from July 1 to August 25 in the new ENSP building.

Throughout the exhibition, the general public will also be able to discover some of the work via the Inserm Instagram account.

Art of Research #8 exhibition

July 1, 2019 to August 25, 2019

Free entry daily from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at ENSP

Boulevard Victor Hugo 13 200 Arles

Opening event with the artists in attendance: July 2, 2019 at 5 p.m. Discover the work on the @Inserm Instagram account

For more information: https://www.ensp-arles.fr/inserm2019

binôme: 10th edition as part of the “In” program at the Avignon Festival

This year sees theater company Les sens des mots presenting its 10th series of binôme performances as part of the “In” program at the Avignon Festival. Inserm has partnered with binôme from the beginning, helping to develop new visions of science by bringing together the worlds of research and contemporary theater.

binôme consists of a series of performances developed from a meeting and discussion between a researcher and a dramatist. Each meeting results in a piece of theater that is loosely inspired by the encounter, in which the researcher and his or her work becomes the dramatist’s subject. The performance combines:

• a screening of extracts from the filmed meeting between the dramatist and the scientist;
• a reading of the play by members of the Les sens des mots theater company;
• the filmed reaction of the scientist as he or she sees the play for the first time;
• a public discussion with the dramatist, scientist, and artistic team.

This year, Inserm and binôme are inviting the general public to discover Élise louche!, a play by dramatist Hédi Tillette de Clermont-Tonnerre based on his meeting with Alain Chédotal, Inserm research director in developmental neurobiology at the Institut de la Vision (Inserm unit 968/CNRS/Sorbonne Université).

The first performance will be held in Avignon on July 15.

Monday July 15 – 5.30 p.m.: Élise louche! Avignon Université – Les Jardins de l’Université 74 rue Louis Pasteur

View the full program of binôme performances at the Avignon Festival and book tickets at: https://www.lessensdesmots.eu

Les sens des mots press contact: Valérie Mastrangelo

+33 (0)6 58 11 24 80

ue.stomsedsnessel@olegnartsam.eirelav

© Francois Guenet / Inserm

Appointed by the French Council of Ministers on November 26, 2018, Gilles Bloch took up his post as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inserm on January 2, 2019.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique, doctor, and researcher specializing in medical imaging, Gilles Bloch spent a large part of his career at the French Atomic Energy Commission before taking on major roles within research policy, including heading up the French National Research Agency upon its creation, and then being appointed Head of Research and Innovation at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Since 2015, he has chaired Université Paris-Saclay.

“I’m honored and delighted to chair such a major scientific establishment as Inserm. While driving the strategic continuity of my predecessors’ achievements, I wish to further the Institute’s work in serving its research mission and benefiting health across the board”. Gilles Bloch, Chairman and CEO of Inserm.

Illustration: ©Flore Avram

This year’s Inserm Prize ceremony will take place on Tuesday December 11, 2018, at the Collège de France in celebration of nine researchers and engineers whose achievements have helped raise the level of scientific excellence at the Institute, in the service of science for health. “By honoring its talents, Inserm wishes to showcase the diversity and richness of the biomedical research professions, and the creativity and passion of the women and men who drive them on a daily basis”, states Claire Giry, Inserm Director General and acting President. The 2018 Inserm Grand Prize will go to Alain Tedgui for his research on identifying the role of the immune system in atherosclerosis. Two clinical trials directly resulting from his research are currently ongoing.

Alain Tedgui, Inserm Grand Prize

Following a grounding in applied mathematics, Inserm Research Director Alain Tedgui developed a passion for atherosclerosis, one of the primary causes of cardiovascular disease, very early on in his career. Since then, he has gone on to reveal the inflammatory and immune aspects of this cardiovascular condition caused by an accumulation of cholesterol in the arterial walls, and which can lead to myocardial infarction. But is it not actually an auto-immune disease? Tedgui, who leads the Paris-Cardiovascular Research Center at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris, has devoted his entire career to this subject, shattering a few medical and scientific dogmas along the way!

Pierre Golstein, Special Prize

Exceptionally this year, Inserm has decided to award a Special Prize to highlight a major discovery made at Inserm upstream of the research being awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The recipient is Pierre Golstein at the Center of Immunology Marseille-Luminy, for having been the first to identify protein CTLA-4, which is now the target of some cancer immunotherapy strategies.

Elisabetta Dejana, International Prize

Inserm also wishes to reward the careers of foreign researchers – careers which tie in with the Institute’s long-standing tradition of international cooperation. This year’s International Prize goes to Elisabetta Dejana, a vascular wall specialist who has had a particularly rich European career so far, spanning Italy, France and Sweden. Experiences which she uses to champion career equality between men and women.

Antoine Triller, Prize of Honor

Since 2004, the Prize of Honor acknowledges the career of an eminent scientific figure. This year it goes to Antoine Triller who has devoted his to understanding the cellular and molecular bases of neural communication. He has played a major role in furthering neuroscientific research, most notably through the creation of the Biology Institute of the École Normale Supérieure in which he has always sought to foster the independence and dynamism of the teams.

Robert Barouki, Opecst-Inserm Prize

Since 2013, Inserm has wished to reward efforts to promote research and its ability to be truly in dialogue with societal expectations and citizens’ health questions. This is why the Institute, in partnership with the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Options (Opecst) has created the Opecst-Inserm Prize. Its recipient this year is Robert Barouki, who has always wished, in addition to his research on the exposome, to inform public health decisions.

Nathalie Vergnolle and Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil, Research Prize

The Research Prize honors researchers, lecturer-researchers and clinician-researchers whose work has particularly marked the fields of fundamental research, clinical and therapeutic research, and public health research. Nathalie Vergnolle has worked on the gradual creation of the Digestive Health Research Institute which she currently leads in Toulouse – a specialist structure whose multidisciplinary approach is unique in France. Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil is a pioneer in the understanding of immune system activation with the prospect of making advances in cancer immunotherapy.

Ahmed Abbas and Nelly Pirot, Innovation Prize

Engineers, technicians and administrative staff also play valuable roles in research: the Innovation Prize is dedicated to them. Ahmed Abbas, responsible for the management of radioactive medicines at the Cyceron platform in Caen, has helped further the development of these products in collaboration with researchers. Nelly Pirot, in charge of the Experimental Histology Network platform of the Institute of Cancer Research of Montpellier, steers the entire technical process. She contributes to reducing the use of animals for research purposes, a primary concern at Inserm.

Gilles Bloch has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) by the Council of Ministers. Gilles Bloch becomes Inserm’s ninth CEO since the Institute was created in 1964. He will assume his post on January 2, 2019.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique, doctor, and researcher specializing in medical imaging, Gilles Bloch spent a large part of his career at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) before taking on major roles within research policy, including heading up the French National Research Agency upon its creation, and then being appointed Head of Research and Innovation at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Gilles Bloch joined the Frédéric Joliot Hospital Unit in Orsay in 1990 to conduct research into nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University in the United States, and then from 1997 onward held various management positions at the CEA before being appointed Deputy Director of its Life Sciences Division in 2001.

In 2002 he joined the Ministry of Research as an advisor for life sciences, health, and bioethics, then as assistant director. He was entrusted with leading the newly created French National Research Agency (ANR) before becoming Head of Research and Innovation at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2006. In 2009, he was appointed Director of Life Sciences at the CEA.

Since 2015, he has chaired the Université Paris-Saclay group of universities and institutions.

These founding partners of what is now the seventh center of excellence to receive the coveted University Hospital Institute (IHU) label are embarking on an exceptional project to address the challenges of vision disorders. Centered around the Vision Institute directed by Prof. José-Alain Sahel, the project combines fundamental and clinical research of excellence to improve the knowledge and treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and degenerative disease of genetic origin. The focus of the IHU is not just to understand these diseases but to restore vision.

Visual impairment is one of the top fears of our fellow citizens and affects several million people in France (including over one million for AMD). The impact on education, employment, autonomy, cognitive functions and the emotional health of those affected is considerable. The human burden is incalculable, with the cost to society running into the tens of billions.

The major funding accompanying this new status will considerably intensify the momentum of diagnostic and therapeutic progress driven by the IHU teams and their partners. Their activities involve studying the mechanisms of visual perception from retina to cortex, and especially brain plasticity in a visual restoration context, characterizing aging and the pathological processes of the visual system to prevent vision loss, and finally developing and validating novel therapeutic approaches in regenerative and prosthetic medicine. This IHU is building on the many years of investment, by the founders having supported the Seeing and Hearing Foundation in the framework of the Labex LIFESENSES (Laboratory of Excellence) of the “Seeing and Hearing” Carnot Institute, by the Clinical Investigation Center and by the Inserm-CNRS-SU Joint Research Unit led by José-Alain Sahel.

The Vision Institute has enjoyed a number of successes in enterprise creation and in its industry partnerships. The IHU will have an additional leverage effect on the innovations generated directly by this new project and is at the heart of a large international partnership network with, among others, the University of Pittsburgh and Japan, with which it will work in synergy. The IHU will operate on the basis of flexible governance by public stakeholders and with the involvement of partners – particularly patient associations.

Project champion José-Alain Sahel thanks “the teams at the Vision Institute and Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital, as well as the public partners and stakeholders, associations and industry players which have made it possible, thanks to this State support, to embark on a new era of transformation serving patients and society”.

Director Jean-François Segovia and Medical Committee Chairman Christophe Baudouin declare: “Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital, the world’s oldest institution in the fight against blindness, together with its institutional partners, will be able to step up the innovation strategy conducted on the campus by the clinical teams and by the Vision Institute. The successes accomplished are also the measure of what separates us from our ultimate ideal: an end to blindness. There is no doubt that this IHU will be a potent accelerator of innovation, education and treatment”.

Jean Chambaz, for Sorbonne Université, declares: “This new success will enable the Vision Institute to pursue its integrated approach to vision, mobilizing numerous Sorbonne Université disciplines around a major public health issue. The IHU will enable it to extend its action via a personalized medicine network, bringing together patients and a broad network of healthcare players and structures”.

Yves Lévy, for Inserm, declares: “This success crowns the very lengthy investment of Inserm in an original research domain with a strong societal impact. We owe this success to the excellence of the fundamental and clinical research teams, and to the dynamism and ambition of project champion José-Alain Sahel at the service of patients, to whom I wish to extend my warmest congratulations.”

Inserm/Aviesan, the French Society for Rheumatology, the French Arthritis Foundation and 17 partner associations will come together for the 5th Together Against Rheumatism day on October 12, 2018, under the high patronage of President Emmanuel Macron.

Its objective is twofold: fulfill the need for communication between patients, doctors and researchers and create a buzz around the need to support rheumatism and musculoskeletal disease research in France.

The event will take the form of two webinars for which you can register free online:

www.ensemblecontrelesrhumatismes.org

There will be two themes: the morning session (11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.) will look at gene-environment interactions using the example of pre-rheumatoid arthritis, and the afternoon session (2 – 3:30 p.m.) will be devoted to the new cell and tissue therapies for rheumatism.

Each conference will be divided into three parts in order to promote dialog between patients and research professionals. A clinician/researcher will begin by describing the current research situation and give their clinical viewpoint. Then, representatives of the group of partner associations will put forward the questions and expectations of patients. The final part of the session will take the form of a discussion involving the various speakers, with the possibility for the webinar participants to ask questions.