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Julien Mazières

Coordinator

CHU de Toulouse

Steering Committee Strategic Committee

Julien Mazières

Coordinator

Julien Mazières is a pulmonologist (primary specialization) and an oncologist (secondary specialization), heading the pulmonary medicine department at Toulouse University Hospital in France. He also leads the thoracic oncology program at Toulouse Cancer Institute (IUCT). He is a researcher at Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm) in the Oncology Research Center of Toulouse (CRCT, UMR1037, SIGNATHER team).

Olivier Calvayrac

Co-Coordinator

CRCT / SIGNATHER, Toulouse

Steering Committee Strategic Committee

Olivier Calvayrac

Co-Coordinator

Olivier Calvayrac’s main research objective is to decipher the molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways underlying lung cancer progression and resistance to targeted therapies. His work particularly focuses on the Rho GTPases family that controls a wide variety of signal transduction pathways in response to cellular stress. Since joining the CRCT in 2012, he has been developing his scientific projects through a translational perspective in close relationship with clinicians, to integrate in vitro, in vivo and patient data, thus reinforcing the clinical relevance of his results and facilitating the transfer of fundamental knowledge to the patients.

Matthieu Foll

Co-Coordinator (rotating)

IARC/WHO, Lyon

Steering Committee

Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran

Co-Coordinator (rotating)

Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon

Steering Committee Strategic Committee

Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran

Co-Coordinator (rotating)

Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran did a PhD in Molecular Biology (2009-2012) in Lyon, France. During her post-doc in Roman Thomas’lab (UniKoeln, Germany) (2012-2015), she demonstrated that genomic alterations in KRAS, ERBB2 or MET functionally drive resistance to EGFR inhibitors in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). As a Research Associate in the team of Alain Puisieux (2015-2018), at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL, France), her work evidenced that CD70 induces ZEB1 and promotes T-cell exhaustion in pulmonary sarcomatoid tumors. She also started an independent line of investigation to assess the mechanisms of resistance to therapy in BRAF-mutant LUAD, using ctDNA profiling. Since 2018 she leads a lung cancer group in the team of Pierre Saintigny (CRCL), as a tenured-research scientist, which focuses on understanding the role of cancer cell plasticity in resistance to therapy in LUAD. In this context, she started the institutional initiative for the generation of LUAD patient-derived organoids. In 2021, she initiated the BOLERO Consortium, gathering European leaders in the biology and clinical management of BRAF-mutant LUAD, to foster the discoveries of treatment strategies to improve the survival of these patients.

Virginie Albinet

Project Manager

CHU de Toulouse

Steering Committee Strategic Committee

Virginie Albinet

Project Manager

Virginie Albinet is the Project Manager of COALA. She holds a PhD in cancer research and has over 15 years of experience in biomedical research. For 11 years, she led preclinical project development and management at a preclinical CRO. Throughout her career, she has gained extensive expertise in designing experimental protocols, research ethics, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, managing study execution, scientific communication, sponsor relations, and bridging academic and industrial research environments.

Julien Mazières

Olivier Calvayrac

Matthieu Foll

Sandra Ortiz-Cuaran

Virginie Albinet

Marco Alifano

Sébastien Benzekry

Fatiha Boudouh-Ponsard

Alexis Cortot

Diane Damotte

Michaël Duruisseaux

Lynnette Fernandez-Cuesta

Luc Friboulet

Nicolas Girard

Paul Hofman

Antonio Maraver

Marianne Navarra

Vera Pancaldi

Aurélie Swalduz

Eric Tartour

Audrey Vézian

Marie Wislez

Gérard Zalcman

Patients’association representative

IFCT representative