Adding to his achievements (see article posted July 13th, 2012) and his award for stem cell research, Cédric Blanpain, professor at the ULB, WELBIO IRIBHM investigator and Faculty of Medicine of the ULB, has been announced the winner of this year’s Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences (250,000 euros).

Each year, the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation awards the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences to a young researcher (under 45), recognized in the scientific community for the quality of his or her international publications. In addition to the recipient’s scientific recognition, the award-winning researcher must conduct a research project that is particularly promising and be able to build a team for the project.

Blanpain has also been included among Nature’s 10, ten men and women who, according to the prestigious journal, Nature, have made a major contribution to science in 2012.

Examples of  he and his team’s recent discoveries:

• Blanpain and his team have shown for the first time the existence of cancer stem cells in vivo, so as to better define the mode of tumor growth in different types of cancers, in metastatic relapse after or during treatment and ultimately to develop new therapeutic strategies.

•They have recently identified a new population of stem cells of the skin, responsible for tissue repair, which could have an important implication in regenerative medicine, particularily  for skin repair of the severely burned patient or chronic wounds.

•They have also identified new populations of breast stem cells that ensure the development and maintenance of the mammary gland throughout life, opening new avenues for studying cells at the origin of the different breast cancer subtypes.

For more on Cédric and his past achievments please read the previous article published July 13, 2012 or visit the links below.

Sources:

http://www.ulb.ac.be/actulb/index.php

http://www.ulb.ac.be/actulb/presse.php?arc

http://blanpainlab.ulb.ac.be/index.htm

Contact:

Cédric Blanpain, MD, PhD

IRIBHM, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Email:

Site web : http://blanpainlab.ulb.ac.be/index.htm