Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Since March 2025, I have been heading the newly-created Inserm's office of digital sciences for health research. In addition, I have been heading since 2023 research project-team AIstroSight (https://team.inria.fr/aistrosight/). AIstroSight's overall goal is to develop innovative numerical methods for neuropharmacology, the search of new drug candidates to treat brain diseases. We use machine learning to integrate multiscale information sources (molecular data from cell cultures, brain imaging, clinical data) into a coherent stream of data and expert knowledge. We also develop mechanistic modeling approaches (multiscale quantitative systems biology/pharmacology) to produce explanations for the predictions of the machine learning algorithms, that can be rooted in neurobiology. Another central aspect of AIstroSight is to widen the focus of neuropharmacology beyond neurons, that constitute only one part of the nerve cells in the brain, and also take into account the other half, that is made up by glial cells. In particular, we consider the pharmacology of astrocytes, one major subtype of glial cells, in interaction with the pharmacology of neurons Between 2018 and 2023, I have served as deputy scientific director of Inria, in charge of the research in digital biology and health. My mission consisted in implementing Inria’s strategy vis-à-vis our academic and. industrial collaborators on the application of numerical sciences (applied mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence) to biology or health and in propounding potential new perspectives to our research teams working in those fields. A computational cell biologist, my research focuses on mathematical and computer models of the spatiotemporal dynamics of biochemical reactions involved in cell signaling, in particular in brain cells. My publication track comprises more than 70 articles, mostly in journals for experimental and computational biology but also in computer science and applied mathematics.
Directeur du Pôle IA & Numérique de l'Inserm
Head of project-team AIstroSight, https://team.inria.fr/aistrosight/. Our overall goal is to develop innovative numerical methods for neuropharmacology, the search of new drug candidates to treat brain diseases. We use machine learning to integrate multiscale information sources (molecular data from cell cultures, brain imaging, clinical data) into a coherent stream of data and expert knowledge. We also develop mechanistic modeling approaches (multiscale quantitative systems biology/pharmacology) to produce explanations for the predictions of the machine learning algorithms, that can be rooted in neurobiology. Another central aspect of AIstroSight is to widen the focus of neuropharmacology beyond neurons, that constitute only one part of the nerve cells in the brain, and also take into account the other half, that is made up by glial cells. In particular, we consider the pharmacology of astrocytes, one major subtype of glial cells, in interaction with the pharmacology of neurons.
The mission of the Comite d’Expertise et Scientifique pour les Recherches, les Etudes et les Evaluations dans le domaine de la Santé (CESREES) is to examine the public interest, the ethical and scientific quality of requests for access to french public health data.