Toulouse. She wins an international prize for her work on a rare cancer affecting children
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
Cancer is a less taboo subject in France but it is delicate when it affects children. It is in this particular field that he specializes Loelia Babinresearcher in the laboratory of Toulouse Cancer Research Center (CRCT)based at the Oncopole, within a group directed by Fabienne Meggetto.
Understanding relapse mechanisms
The project of this post-doctoral student, who arrived in the Pink City in 2021, is to understand the mechanisms of resistance and relapse in white blood cell cancer, particularly affecting children.
“The aim is to better understand anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a rare cancer, in order to find new therapeutic targets. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms of resistance to therapeutic agents. Knowing them better will allow more appropriate care and faster for patients”.
If in 80% of cases of this rare cancer, the clinical treatment works, “we observe relapses in 20% of other cases“says Loélia Babin.
The young woman, who discovered cellular and molecular biology in medical school, defended her thesis on how a normal white blood cell transforms into a cancerous cell.
Distinguished by an international award
On Wednesday October 12, 2022, Loélia Babin received a 2022 L’Oréal-Unesco Young Talent Prize for women and science, with 34 other young female scientists. The post-doctoral student, who sees it as “a boost” but “not an outcome”, also received at the same time a check for 20,000 euros. A sum that the Toulouse by adoption wishes to use to progress in the world scientific congresses and to present its work to a larger audience. “With this award, it will also be easier to obtain other funding,” she explains.
In the meantime, Loélia under contract until 2025 with the CRCT, is full of praise for the Pink City, which she joined in 2021 from Paris. “The Oncopole is a competitive center, with a super center in cancerology. And the city is great, I didn’t know it before. Staying permanently in Toulouse is another of my projects! she concluded.
35 researchers rewarded in France, including three from Toulouse
The Prix Jeunes Talents France 2022, supported with the partnership of the L’Oréal Foundation, the Academy of Sciences and the French National Commission for UNESCO, rewards women researchers each year for their work.
On Wednesday October 12, 2022, at the National Center for Arts and Crafts in Paris, 35 of them were rewarded in six different categories:
– Physics, astronomy and biochemistry
– Cellular biology
– Neurosciences, epidemiology and infectious diseases
– Life and environmental sciences
– Engineering and biotechnologies
– Applied mathematics and bioinformatics
Three Toulouse researchers received a Prize: Opale Coutant (she seeks to assess the impacts of human activities on freshwater ecosystems in the Amazon), Loélia Bobin and Lucile Vigue (her studies focus on the resistance of bacteria to might).
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