Fascinated by the human brain, her research has advanced our knowledge on cerebrovascular accidents. A researcher through and through, Myriam Bernaudin nevertheless constantly strives to focus her work on medical needs.

Understanding why and how, but especially how… How things work. The very essence of research. Although from a family of doctors, Myriam Bernaudin, a CNRS Researcher, prefers fundamental research to application. She reckons it’s less stressful. “I couldn’t imagine being responsible for human life.” Or at least not directly. However, there is but a small step between research and application. An infinitely small step. For Myriam believes that research should always imply proposals towards therapeutic strategies. And that’s precisely the particularity of CERVOxy, the team she has been coordinating since 2008 within the CI-NAPS (Centre for Imaging - Neuroscience and Applications in Pathology - a CEA-CNRS-UCBN-Université Paris Descartes laboratory). And the fact that her discovery on EPO, published in 1999, a first in Europe and a second worldwide, was snubbed by French neurologists for a number of years, generated legitimate frustration. “We had discovered, together with Dr Petit, who was in charge of my thesis at the time, that EPO, or erythropoietin, is a neuroprotector against cerebral ischaemia, a form of cerebrovascular accident (stroke), caused by the stoppage of blood flow.” A revolution! However, the medical profession was far from convinced. “The scientific community had barely discovered that this molecule is also synthesised in the brain.” And it was difficult for them to acknowledge that EPO could play a different role than that of producing red blood cells. Nevertheless, over and above a keen interest among cyclists, stroke sufferers could well appreciate the benefits of this hormone. The first clinical trials were conducted in Germany in 2002. “The discovery, concurrently made by a Japanese team, needed to be confirmed by several teams. A total of five years were required before the application of our fundamental research results in a clinical setting.” A little long according to Myriam.

Cerebral responses

In the meantime, she continued to study adaptive cerebral responses to hypoxia. A subject she has gradually come to master over time. Within the framework of her post-doctoral study, she travelled to the United States to study the genes implicated in cerebrovascular accidents, via DNA chips. She was appointed a CNRS researcher and came back to France 18 months later. In 2001, she joined Cyceron and immediately plunged herself into the study of neuroregeneration, i.e. the post-ischaemic production of new neurons (1). A subject in vogue at the time. “We had just demonstrated the presence and the plasticity of stem cells in the adult brain.”And as she had for EPO, Myriam immediately seized the opportunity offered by this new discovery. She endeavoured to demonstrate that the adult stem cells present in bone marrow could differentiate into neurons in the brain. “When administered intravenously, they could facilitate the regeneration process,” she explains. And she remains faithful to her foremost research aim: proposing therapeutic strategies. “That’s why I have asked three physicians from the CHU in Caen to join my team.” A medley of determination and results that was to earn her a CNRS Bronze Medal in 2008. Which is also an encouragement to pursue her research. And recognition in her specific field.

The appeal of Cyceron

When Myriam Bernaudin obtained her Baccalaureat, she was already fascinated by the human brain, and left Paris to settle in Caen. “I knew that I would get quality biology teaching there. And Cyceron was beginning to make a name for itself.”
She joined a freshly inaugurated Master’s Degree course specialising in neuroscience, simultaneously to her arrival at Cyceron where she then studied for her DEA, followed by her thesis.
And it was within Cyceron that she discovered, in 1999, the role of EPO in cerebrovascular accidents
It was also within this laboratory that she was able to validate therapeutic strategies concerning not only stroke sufferers but also brain tumours, thanks to the arrival of a micro-PET camera in 2005 and an MRI in 2007.

(1) Cerebrovascular accident caused by the stoppage of blood flow, also referred to as a stroke.

Myriam Bernaudin
CERVOxy - CI-NAPS research director
Tel: : 02 31 47 01 03
Websites: www.ci-naps.fr
Website: http://gip.cyceron.fr

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