Catherine Lubetzki is a French neurologist who is a professor at Sorbonne University. She is head of the Department of Neurological Diseases at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she coordinates the Salpêtrière Multiple Sclerosis clinical research centre. Her research involves the physiology of multiple sclerosis, and identifying the interactions between myelin and axons. In 2019, she was awarded the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation Charcot Award.

Catherine Lubetzki
Alma materPierre and Marie Curie University
Paris Descartes University
Scientific career
InstitutionsPierre and Marie Curie University
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
Collège de France
ThesisIsolement et culture d'oligodendrocytes : contribution à l'étude des maladies démyélinisantes humaines

Early life and education edit

Lubetzki completed her medical training at the Paris Descartes University.[1] She became interested in neurology after a selection process left her the last member of the year group to choose a rotation. She ended up in a neurosurgery rotation, and completed a year in research at the Collège de France.[1] She worked alongside Jacques Glowinski on neuropharmacology and first interacted with people with multiple sclerosis, realising that they were not receiving appropriate medical care. She worked as a clinical researcher identifying new immunotherapies for multiple sclerosis. She completed her doctoral research at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, where she worked on myelin and myelin-forming cells.[1]

Research and career edit

In 1996, Lubetzki was the first to demonstrate the role of electrical activity in the induction of myelination.[2] Experimentally, she showed that myelination could be inhibited by blocking the action potential of neighbouring axons (and vice versa).[2] She went on to develop this research, and, concentrating on the Node of Ranvier, demonstrated conduction velocity increases with myelination.[3] Her identification that the rate and efficacy of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells are critical in myelination could help to identify new repair strategies.[1] Using in vitro screening, Lubetzki has developed pro-myelinating therapeutic candidates, and is testing the impact of electrical stimulation at the Paris Brain Institute.[4]

Lubetzki served as President of the Scientific Committee for the French Multiple Sclerosis Research Association.[5] In 2019, she was the first woman to be awarded the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation Charcot Award.[6]

Awards and honours edit

Selected publications edit

  • Corinne de Chappedelaine; B Stankoff; M Logak; P Anglade; B Allinquant; F Couraud; B Zalc; C Lubetzki (1 September 1996). "Induction of myelination in the central nervous system by electrical activity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 93 (18): 9887–9892. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.9887D. doi:10.1073/PNAS.93.18.9887. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 38524. PMID 8790426. Wikidata Q30453890.
  • Xavier Montalban; Ralf Gold; Alan J. Thompson; et al. (1 January 2018). "ECTRIMS/EAN Guideline on the pharmacological treatment of people with multiple sclerosis". Multiple Sclerosis Journal. 24 (2): 96–120. doi:10.1177/1352458517751049. ISSN 1352-4585. PMID 29353550. Wikidata Q47849889. (erratum)
  • Christel Renoux; Sandra Vukusic; Christian Confavreux (4 June 2008). "The natural history of multiple sclerosis with childhood onset". Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. 110 (9): 897–904. doi:10.1016/J.CLINEURO.2008.04.009. ISSN 0303-8467. PMID 18534742. Wikidata Q37183765.

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Kirby, Tony (2020-08-01). "Catherine Lubetzki—expert on remyelination in multiple sclerosis". The Lancet Neurology. 19 (8): 648. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30241-6. ISSN 1474-4422.
  2. ^ a b Demerens, C; Stankoff, B; Logak, M; Anglade, P; Allinquant, B; Couraud, F; Zalc, B; Lubetzki, C (1996-09-03). "Induction of myelination in the central nervous system by electrical activity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 93 (18): 9887–9892. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.18.9887. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 38524. PMID 8790426.
  3. ^ Freeman, Sean A.; Desmazières, Anne; Simonnet, Jean; Gatta, Marie; Pfeiffer, Friederike; Aigrot, Marie Stéphane; Rappeneau, Quentin; Guerreiro, Serge; Michel, Patrick Pierre; Yanagawa, Yuchio; Barbin, Gilles; Brophy, Peter J.; Fricker, Desdemona; Lubetzki, Catherine; Sol-Foulon, Nathalie (2015-01-20). "Acceleration of conduction velocity linked to clustering of nodal components precedes myelination". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (3). doi:10.1073/pnas.1419099112. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4311839. PMID 25561543.
  4. ^ "Team "Repair in Multiple Sclerosis: from biology to clinical translation "". Institut du Cerveau. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  5. ^ "Professor Catherine Lubetzki, Leader in Myelin Repair Research, Wins Charcot Award". 2019-06-22.
  6. ^ a b "Charcot Award winners". MS International Federation. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  7. ^ "Fondation NRJ pour les neurosciences - Institut de France". fondation.nrj.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  8. ^ "ICM - Institut du cerveau et de la moelle épinière".
  9. ^ "PRIX DE LA FONDATION POUR LA RECHERCHE MÉDICALE 2022" (PDF).
  10. ^ Foxcroft, Claudia (2019-07-18). "Lifetime achievement award for research into the understanding and treatment of MS". Able Magazine. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  11. ^ floralicorn (2021-12-09). "Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier Prize: Prof. Catherine Lubetzki awarded". Servier. Retrieved 2023-02-16.