Biosketch

Trained as a nephrologist and kidney physiologist, I was first interested in fundamental immunology but moved quickly to pathophysiology through a PhD training spent in Fabiola Terzi’s Team (already in Necker). In the 2010’s I became fascinated by the observations that mutations affecting proteins that localize to an antenna-like structure of the cells, called the primary cilium, cause a wide range of genetic kidney disease questioning the pathophysiologic function of this tiny structure in kidney pathophysiology. Therefore I spend two great years in Freiburg studying these aspects under the mentorship of Wolfgang Kühn and Gerd Walz. Working there with my wife (Amandine Viau; now working as a researcher at Imagine institute), we discovered that kidney primary cilia control the expression of the chemokine CCL2 and thereby kidney inflammation. This finding pushed me to investigate more closely the functions of primary cilia in genetic and acquired kidney disease through the prism of physiology and pathophysiology.

I am now assistant professor in the physiology department of Necker hospital, where I follow patients suffering from kidney diseases caused by mutations in genes affecting cilia functions. In parallel, I have established my research Group, in Fabiola Terzi’s Lab, aiming to decipher the role of primary cilia in the pathophysiology of chronic kidney diseases to delineate novel treatment options for patients.