MEMBERS

Muriel Amblard

Group leader, Research Director (CNRS)

MURIEL AMBLARD

Dr Muriel AMBLARD obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Montpellier under the supervision of Prof Jean Martinez in 1991. She joined the group of Dr Paul Anderson at Merck Sharp & Dohm in West point (Pennsylvania, USA) as a post-doctoral fellow. In 1996, she obtained a position at the Laboratory of Amino Acid Peptide and Protein in Montpellier as a CNRS researcher. She became a CNRS senior researcher and a team leader at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron in 2007. Her research interests are mainly at the interface of chemistry, biology and analysis

Jean Martinez

Professor Emeritus , Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Jean martinez

Jean Martinez received both his PhD in 1972 from the University of Montpellier 2 and his Dr Sciences Degree in 1976, under the supervision of Professor F. Winternitz. The same year, he joined Dr E. Bricas group at Orsay, University of Paris Sud, as a post-doctorate fellow and in 1977 the laboratory of Professor M. Bodanszky at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA, where he stayed till mid 1979. In 2007, he created the « Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron », which he has been the Director until December 2014. He is actually Head of the department of Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins at IBMM.

Jean-Alain Fehrentz

Research Director (CNRS)

Jean-Alain Fehrentz

Jean-Alain Fehrentz was born in Nancy, France, in 1955. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Nancy in 1983 and joined the Centre CNRS-INSERM de Pharmacologie Endocrinologie of Montpellier in the research group of Professor B. Castro. From 1989 to 1992 he was appointed as researcher at Sanofi Research in Montpellier. Then he moved to the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier, working under the direction of Professor J. Martinez. His research interests focus on peptide aldehydes, enzyme inhibitors, peptidomimetics, and heterocycle based receptor ligands. He published more than 150 scientific papers.

Gilles Subra

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Gilles Subra

Gilles leads his researches in the Institute of Biomolécules Max Mousseron (IBMM) in the field of peptide science. His main research topics are at the interface of chemistry and biology and notably concern methodologies for solid phase and combinatorial chemistry, design of chemical tools to enhance detection and quantification by mass spectrometry in biological media. More recently, he is interested in the design of peptide-based materials and polymers. The main applications concern the conception of multi-ligand nanoparticles for cancer targeting, the functionalisation of silicone medical devices and dressings.

Baptiste Legrand

Research Engineer, University of Montpellier (UM)

Baptiste Legrand

Baptiste received his PhD in life sciences and health (structural biology) from the University of Rennes 1 in 2009 and moved for a two-years post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics (LCPM, Nancy) working on the characterization of foldamers structures combining various techniques (NMR, CD and FTIR spectroscopies, and Molecular Dynamics).

JEAN-FRANÇOIS HERNANDEZ

Research Director (CNRS)

Jean-François Hernandez

Jean-François Hernandez performed his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Bernard P. Roques (Paris V University, 1987) under the supervision of Prof. Marie-Claude Fournié-Zaluski, where he developed pseudo-dipeptidic inhibitors of enkephalin-degrading enzymes as potential analgesics. Then, he went to the Salk Institute in San Diego as a post-doctoral fellow (1988-1990) under the supervision of Prof. Jean E. Rivier, where he learned solid phase peptide synthesis (Boc and Fmoc chemistries, GRF agonists, CRF antagonists, conotoxins, long peptides). 

Ludovic Maillard

Associate professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

LUDOVIC maillaRd

Ludovic Maillard is Pharmacyst (Paris XI, 2002) and Chemical Engineer (ENSCP, Paris VI, 2002). After a Master Degree in organic chemistry (Paris VI, 2002), he did a PhD in bioorganic chemistry at the ICSN, in the group of Dr. B. Badet. Thereafter he joined the group of Prof. J. Robinson (OCI, Zurich, Switzerland) for a one-year post-doctoral fellow. He is actually Assistant Professor in medicinal chemistry.

One of his major research interests is to develop and characterized conformationaly predictable molecular architectures named foldamers, which are constructed from heterocyclic γ-amino acids

Séverine Denoyelle

Assiociate Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

severine denoyelle

After defending her Ph.D. in the field of bioorganic chemistry in 2005, Severine joined the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier as a postdoctoral fellow. As part of the European project “Antimal”, her research work consisted in the development of new oral drugs for the treatment of Malaria. In 2007, Séverine started a two-year postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, where she focused on the design and the synthesis of small molecules, namely diarylureas and oxindoles, for cancer therapy. In 2009, she became assistant professor in medicinal chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier where she joined the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM).

Luc Brunel

Chemical Engineer, CNRS – Synbio

luc brunel

Luc BRUNEL graduated from a DEA in heterocycle chemistry, polymers and catalysis obtained at the University of Montpellier in 1997. After several experiences in the private sector, since 2003 he has been working as a CNRS engineer in biomolecule development. He works on both the SynBio3 platform providing biomolecules of biological interest and pharmaceuticals, as responsible for syntheses and purifications in large quantities, but also within the research team of the laboratory to carry out certain precursor projects.

Laurent Gavara

Associate professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Laurent Gavara

Laurent Gavara completed his M. Sci. in 2005 in Montpellier and pursued his graduate studies under the supervision of Pr. Jean-Pierre Hénichart and Pr. Benoit Rigo at the University of Lille, where he received his Ph.D. in 2008. He conducted a first postdoctoral work for 2 years in Clermont-Ferrand in the Pascal Moreau group and then moved to a second postdoctoral position for 1 year in Fort Worth, US, with the Pr. Jean-Luc Montchamp. 

Nicolas Masurier

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Montpellier University

Nicolas masurier

Nicolas Masurier was born in Yvetôt (France) in 1977. He first received his PharmD degree in 2003, before he obtained his PhD in 2006 from the University of Rouen (France) under the supervision of Prof. O. Lafont, working on the synthesis of β-cyclodextrin derivatives with hydrolytic activity against organophosphorous neurotoxics. Then, he moved to the University of Clermont-Ferrand (France) in the group of Pr. J.C. Teulade as an assistant-lecturer and worked on heterocyclic derivatives as tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Pascal Verdier

Chemical engineer, University of Montpellier

Pascal verdié

Pascal Verdié, a chemical engineer from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie of Montpellier, France, performed a PhD program in Chemistry and Biology Sciences for Health, Montpellier  University, which he graduated from in 2005. He worked on the development of selective ligands for the α-MSH MC1 receptor by the means of a huge program of peptide and combinatorial chemistry.

Alain Chavanieu

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Montpellier University

ALAIN CHAVANIEU

Alain Chavanieu received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Montpellier in 1992. After a post-doctoral period at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) in the group of Pr Barry Levine, he joined the Centre de Biochimie Structurale of Montpellier from 1985 to 2002 as post doctoral fellow then as associate professor. In 2011, he moved to the Institut des biomolecules Max Mousseron at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier, under the direction of Professor J. Martinez. His research interests focus on structure function of proteins and modulation of protein-protein interactions.

Cyril Fersing

Associate professor, Radiopharmacist, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Cyril Fersing

Cyril Fersing is an associate professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier since 2018. He also ensures a hospital activity as a radiopharmacist at the Montpellier Cancer Institute (ICM). At the end of his Pharmacy Practice Residency (2013-2018), he received his PharmD degree from Aix-Marseille University. In parallel with his hospital course, he graduated with a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Aix-Marseille University in 2018. To match with his current hospital pharmacy activities, bringing together his growing expertise in oncology and his experience in heterocyclic medicinal chemistry, Cyril Fersing directed his research towards the field of cancerology. His research at the ICM consist of the study and optimization of the radiolabelling conditions of theranostic probes; his major research interest within the IBMM focuses on small heterocyclic molecules for targeted enzyme inhibition or degradation.

Vincent Lisowski

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

VINCENT LISOWSKI

Vincent Lisowski was born in Aunay/Odon (France) in 1974. He first received his PharmD degree in 1998 before he obtained his PhD in 2002 from the University of Basse-Normandie, under the supervision of Professor Sylvain Rault in the field of new thiophene-based chemotherapeutic agents. After a postdoctoral position at the pharmaceutical faculty of Caen, where he developed medicinal projects in the field of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, he joined the group of Professor Jean Martinez as an Assistant Professor at the University of Montpellier, in 2003.

Lubomir Vezenkov portrait

Associate Professor, ENSCM

LUBOMIR Vezenkov

Lubomir Vezenkov performed a co-tutoring PhD between the universities of Montpellier and Naples, which he graduated from in 2011. Afterwards he did a two-years-long post-doctoral internship in the prof. Robert Young group in Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, working on the development of selective inhibitors of the autophagy.

Lubomir then moved back to Montpellier, and in 2016 he received an assistant professor position at ENSCM.

Sébastien Estran

Chemical engineer, CNRS

sébastien Estaran

Sébastien ESTARAN graduated from a DESS in Structural Biology, obtained at the University of Montpellier in 2005. After a first experience as chemical analyst engineer in the pharmaceutical industry, he joined a team at the CBS, a structural laboratory in Montpellier, to work on a Fragment-Based Drug Design strategy to develop protein-protein interaction inhibitors. In 2017, he joined the IBMM as CNRS engineer specialized in molecular interactions studies.

Sébastien is currently working at the interface between chemistry and biology with skills in molecular modelling and protein biochemistry. Then using several biophysics technics, he characterizes protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions.

Pascal Dumy

Professor, ENSCM

Pascal Dumy

Pascal Dumy was appointed director of the National School of Chemistry, Montpellier (ENSCM) in February 2012. After a PhD carried out at the University of Montpellier 1 in 1993, he began his career at the University of Lausanne with Professor Manfred Mutter at the Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 1998 he joined the University of Grenoble 1 as a full professor in chemical biology. His research interest at IBMM focus on the design, synthesis and the validation of integrated functional systems and interfaces endowed with tailor-made properties for therapeutic and/or diagnostic applications or as model study against certain pathologies. He is co-author of over 200 publications.

Sonia Cantel

Associate Professor-HDR, Faculty of Sciences, University of Montpellier

Sonia Cantel

Sonia Cantel obtained her PhD in 2004 in Chemistry of Biomolecules from the University of Montpellier, under the supervision of Dr. J-A Fehrentz, in the field of pseudo-peptide and solid phase organic synthesis. Then, she joined the group of Pr. M. Chorev for the following two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory for Translational Research (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA). She actively participated to biomedicinal projects where chemistry plays a critical role but also required the input of other scientific disciplines. In this interdisciplinary research environment, she developed extensive skills in analytical techniques applied to protein engineering.

Her accomplishments included development of new methodologies for synthesis of glycated antigenic peptides and in situ templated assembly of fragments to generate potent inhibitors of protein-protein interaction.

Anthony Martin 2

Researcher – CNRS, HDR

anthony martin

Anthony R. Martin received his PhD from the University of Montpellier in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Michael Smietana and Dr. Jean-Jacques Vasseur, working on the synthesis and self-assembly of borono(oligo)nucleotides. He then joined Prof. Steven Nolan’s group (Saint-Andrews University) as a postdoctoral researcher to work on late transition metal coordination and their applications in homogeneous catalysis. In 2013, he moved to the Institute of Chemistry of Nice in Dr. Benhida’s group where he was appointed Chargé de Recherche — CNRS in 2014. There, he mainly focused his research on medicinal chemistry programs devoted to the tackling of chemoresistance in cancers. Additionally, he developed chemical biology tools to monitor and probe enzymatic activities in live cells. In 2020, Anthony moved to the Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (Montpellier), in Dr Amblard’s group, where his current researches encompass various aspects of peptide chemistry and the exploration of new modalities for the targeted degradation of proteins.

Elodie Carretero

Assistant Engineer, CNRS

Elodie CARRETERO

Elodie Carretero graduated from a Master’s degree in chemistry of biomolecules at the University of Montpellier in 2019. After a first experience in the private sector on the development of oligonucleotides synthesis for in vitro diagnostics, she joined the CNRS as an assistant engineer in chemical synthesis since 2021. She is in charge of synthesis, purification and characterization of biomolecules for the SynBio3 platform.

photo Echalier

Assistant professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montpellier

Cécile Echalier

Cécile Echalier is an assistant professor at the University of Montpellier with expertise in biomaterials, peptide chemistry and chemical biology. She studied organic and biomolecular chemistry at the University of Montpellier. There, she dedicated her PhD to the synthesis and evaluation of biomimetic materials for tissue engineering applications. Her PhD work was recognized with a L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowship. After her PhD, she joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. In collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, she developed chemical tools to elucidate the mode of action of drug candidates. In 2019, she joined the Stevens group at Imperial College London, UK. She was awarded a Scientia fellowship through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions to develop an islets-on-chip platform with integrated biosensors in collaboration with the University of Oslo, Norway. In 2021, she returned to Montpellier to resume her research on biomimetic hybrid materials for regenerative applications. In 2023, she was appointed assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Montpellier.

Non permanent staff

Hélène Carvaillo
Hélène Carvaillo

Hélène graduated from the engineering school CPE Lyon in 2022. During her studies, she had the opportunity to work at origenis GmbH in Munich, where she was in charge of the synthesis of bioactive molecules. She then joined a double-diploma program with the University of Würzburg where she studied organic and medicinal chemistry. She completed her master thesis in the MedChem department of Merck KgaA in Darmstadt. She joined the team in 2022 for a PhD under the supervision of Nicolas Masurier on a project to develop inhibitors of a protaase involved in multiple sclerosis disease.

Margaux Clavié
Margaux Clavié

After completing a master’s degree in chemistry of biomolecules at the University of Montpellier in 2019, Margaux obtained her PhD at the University of Montpellier in 2022 under the supervision of Professors Gilles Subra and Pascal Dumy. During this project, she worked on the development of artificial protein recognition systems using peptide mimes, in collaboration with the LRB in Grenoble, and molecular imprinting, with ICGM, IRCM and L2C in Montpellier. She has started a post-doc in January 2023 to develop new hybrid materials through sol-gel technology, and to extend this process to various fields of interest.

Alexandre DESFOUX
Alexandre DESFOUX

Alexandre is graduated in Biomolecules research and innovation from University of Montpellier. He just started his CIFRE PhD project with ProGeLife on the development of a drug against the Progeria disease and developing his skills in peptide synthesis, analysis and formulation.

Geoffrey Depaepe
Geoffrey Depaepe

Geoffrey Depaepe graduated with a Master’s degree in advanced synthesis, separation and analysis of biomolecules from the University of Montpellier in 2018. He obtained his PhD from the University of Montpellier in Biomolecular engineering in 2022, under the supervision of Pr. Alain Morère. As part of a collaboration between IBMM and NanoMedSyn Company, he was in charge of the design and the synthesis of innovative glycovectors for targeted drug delivery applications. Since March 2023, he has joined the IBMM peptide team as a Postdoctoral Fellow where he is currently working on the development of nanoPROTACs.

Maxime Fillaudeau
Maxime Fillaudeau

Maxime graduated from master’s degree in Alternative chemistry at Clermont-Ferrand University (France). He performed two internships in organic chemistry and conformationnal analysis in academic laboratories. Maxime joined the IBMM peptide team for his master’s two internship where he acquired skills in peptide synthesis. He just started his PhD project with Muriel Amblard and Baptiste Legrand on the development of SUMOylation inhibitors against Acute Myeloid Leukemia by exploring different strategies such as stapled peptides and PROTAC.

Anthony Feral
Anthony Feral

Anthony graduated from Master’s degree in Chemistry of Biomolecules: Research and Innovation at Montpellier University (France). During his Master’s internships, he worked on the synthesis and the rational design of pseudopeptides; then he worked on the elaboration and the synthesis of small-molecule-based PROTAC compounds. These two internships were performed at the IBMM Peptide Team. From April 2021 to September 2022, Anthony worked as an engineer with Dr. Lubomir Vezenkov and MT-Act, a start-up, on the conception of therapeutical pseudopeptides and PROTACs. Since October 2022, Anthony is a CIFRE PhD student with the MT-act society and IBMM Peptide Team supervised by Dr. Muriel Amblard and Dr. Lubomir Vezenkov. He works on the synthesis of compounds that target the brain to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Célia Bouacha
Célia Bouacha

Celia Bouacha graduated from the University of Strasbourg with a master’s degree in chemistry, biology and drug in 2022. She performed several internships in medicinal chemistry in academic research. In particular, she contributed to various projects such as the synthesis of a therapeutic molecule for the treatment of autism and the synthesis of a photosensitive molecule for the study of neurotransmission. She is currently doing a thesis on the development of heterobivalent ligand to study the heterodimerisation of the ghrelin receptor and the dopamine receptor under the supervision of Dr Severine Denoyelle and Dr Sonia Cantel.

Jules Simonin Garcia
Jules Simonin Garcia

Jules graduated from ENSCBP, the chemistry engineering school of Bordeaux, with specialisation in chemistry and bio-engineering. After an internship in the ChemBioPharm team in Bordeaux (where he worked on oligonucleotides for pancreatic cancer treatment), Jules joined the IBMM Peptide under direction of Pr. Gilles Subra to work on peptide synthesis and functionalisation for an intelligent chronic wound dressing. Jules is currently doing a PhD in peptide synthesis and click chemistry for arthrosis treatment, with Pr. Gilles Subra and Dr. Cécile Echalier.

Samantha Chaise
Samantha Chaise

Samantha obtained a master’s degree in biomolecules chemistry option Applied Synthesis, Separation, Analysis at the University of Montpellier. She did a master’s internship on the synthesis of functionalized phospholes for fluorescent peptide marking. Since October 2021 she works on a thesis entitled « Rational design of enzyme mimes from gamma-peptide foldamers » supervised by Ludovic Maillard and Baptiste Legrand.

Aicha Talha
Aicha Talha

Aicha Talha obtained her bachelor’s degree in organic chemistry (2013) and her master’s degree (2016) in organic and bioorganic chemistry at the University Mohammed V of Rabat-Morocco. In 2016, she joined the plant chemistry and organic and bioorganic synthesis team belonging to the research centre: GEOPAC-MOROCCO as a PhD student in medicinal chemistry and methodology in heterocyclic synthesis. She joined the bioactive molecules team in September 2018 for a 12-month internship in the framework of ERASMUS+. During this internship, she developed a new family of bioactive molecules with high therapeutic activity to circumvent resistance in haematological tumours. She obtained her PhD in 2021 at Mohammed V University of Rabat-Morocco under the supervision of Prof. K. Bougrin. She is currently a post-doc at IBMM in Dr Amblard’s team. Her research work mainly concerns the transposition of an original procedure for the formation of amide bonds based on the activation of the amine group, using solid phase peptide synthesis.

Matthieu Simon
Matthieu Simon

Matthieu started working on peptides during an internship in India (IICT, Hyderabad). Then, he developed skills in biochemistry, molecular and structural biology during his PhD. (IGDR, Rennes). Matthieu is nowadays performing a post doctoral internship at IBMM, using foldamer chemistry developed in the laboratory, in order to design and synthesize innovative glycovectors for targeted drug delivery.

Audrey Gacogne
Audrey Gacogne

Audrey Gacogne graduated from both the engineering school CPE Lyon and the Université Lyon 1’s master in Organic Synthesis and Bioactive Molecules in 2021. As part of her higher education, she worked for one year at Roche in Munich (Germany) as an R&D intern in biochemistry on gestational diabetes markers. She then completed her 6-month graduating project at Université Lyon 1 studying metallic ionic liquid catalysts for carbonyl-olefin metathesis reactions. She is currently working within the IBMM F9 team as a PhD student on γ-peptide foldamers for bifunctional organocatalysis.

Fanny Faure
Fanny Faure

Fanny Faure is graduated from the Chemical Engineering School of Lyon (CPE Lyon).
She did several internships including one year in a German biopharmaceutical company, Origenis GmbH, working on the synthesis of kinase inhibitors involved in neurodegenerative diseases. She also performed a six-month graduation project at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL) at the interface between organic chemistry and biology.
Fanny is currently doing a PhD on the development of a novel class of antibiotics directed against most resistant bacteria through a repurposing of nucleoside analogs.

Lucas Favre
Lucas Favre

Thanks to several internships during his studies, Lucas has acquired a deep fervour in medicinal chemistry. After graduating with a Master’s degree in Chemistry of Biomolecules at the University of Montpellier in 2022, Lucas joined the IBMM for his PhD. Multidisciplinary, his PhD project allies both organic synthesis of molecules having an antitumoral activity, and the development of new nanocarriers made from vegetable oils at the Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (ICGM).

Ali Qassem
Ali Qassem

Ali Qassem studied Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Tishreen University in Syria. He was awarded the excellence scholarship from the University of Milan, Italy to study a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. During his master’s thesis, he worked on developing an analytical method to measure the enzyme 3-HAO activity ex-vivo and in vitro. Ali was selected for the European doctoral training program “NanoReMedi’’ under the supervision of Pr. Gilles Subra, Pr. Alexander Bittner, and Dr. Cecile Echalier. His Ph.D. thesis focuses on synthesizing nanomaterials from hybrid self-assembling peptides and other biomolecules to be used in treatments for regenerative medicine.

Lauren Roberts
Lauren Roberts

Lauren graduated from the UAS Technikum Wien with a master’s degree in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. During her studies, she had the opportunity to join a double-degree program at Linköping University where she obtained a second master’s degree in Experimental and Medical Biosciences. For her master’s thesis, she worked on the biofabrication of skin tissue constructs for burn wounds. Lauren is currently completing her PhD in 3D bioprinting of MSC-laden scaffolds for osteochondral repair under the supervision of Pr. Gilles Subra and Dr. Cécile Echalier.

Mehmet Baran Karakaplan
Mehmet Baran Karakaplan

Baran obtained his master’s degree in nanomedicine at Izmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey in 2021. During his masters  he also worked in industry as R&D Engineer at BONEGRAFT BIOMATERIALS.  Since February 2023, he is a joint PhD student at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Montpellier as a part of EU MSCA-Nanoremedi. Now he is working on antifouling and antibacterial peptide-based coatings for medical implants

Anais Soto-Araya
Anais Soto-Araya

Anaïs graduated from Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products at Montpellier University (France) with specialization in Innovation in Health Chemistry and Therapeutic Targeting. She performed two internships at the IBMM peptide team in organic and medicinal chemistry. Since September 2023, Anaïs is a PhD student working on the synthesis of hydrogels to encapsulate and release extracellular vesicles to treat systemic sclerosis. This project is under the supervision of Pr. Gilles Subra and Dr. Cécile Echalier.

Francois Salbert
Francois Salbert

François graduated from the engineering school CPE Lyon in 2023. During his studies, he had the opportunity to work at Origenis GmbH in Munich for one year. He synthesized kinase inhibitors involved in CNS diseases. He then joined the IBMM F9 team in 2023 to complete his formation and worked on the synthesis of beta-lactamase and SUB1 inhibitors. He is currently doing a PhD on the Charge-Transfer templated ligation of peptide bioconjugates under the supervision of Muriel Amblard and Anthony Martin.

Sami Ben Salah
Sami Ben Salah

After a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of ”le Havre Normandie”, Sami performed a first postdoctoral internship at the ”Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris” (ESPCI – PSL) under the supervision of Pr Janine COSSY. During this period, he succeeded in developing a new route to the total synthesis of a generic drug via organo- and metallocatalyzed reactions. Sami is currently in a postdoctoral position with IBMM’s F9 team where he is working with Nicolas Masurier and Cyril Fersing on the synthesis of PROTACs to target enzymes.

Maeva Juge
Maeva Juge

After graduating from a BUT in chemistry, environmental quality analysis in 2023 and doing an internship in toxicology at Montpellier University Hospital. I am currently in my first year at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie in Montpellier as an apprentice. I work on the synthesis of peptides under the direction of Luc Brunel.

Lena Ehrmann
Lena Ehrmann

Léna is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at IUT Montpellier with specialization in analysis, control/quality and environment. After an internship in analytical chemistry in this team, she joined as an apprentice under the direction of Pascal Verdié. Léna is in charge of peptides’ analysis, synthesis and purification for the F9 team and the SynBio3 platform.

Past Members

Fabien Petit-Cancelier
Fabien Petit-Cancelier

Fabien Petit-Cancelier obtained his Organic Chemistry Master’s degree in 2018 at University of Poitiers (France). He also joined the Pr. Sébastien Papot’s team during a 5 month internship where he developed a glucuronide vector for the targeted glycoengineering of tumoral cells. Then, he moved to the COBRA laboratory in Rouen to work on the development of new tools and methodologies in organofluorine chemistry as a PhD student under the direction of Dr. Tatiana Besset and Dr. Samuel Couve-Bonnaire. Since May 2022, he started a Postdoctoral fellow to the IBMM in Montpellier where he is currently working on PROTACs development with Pr. Nicolas Masurier and Dr. Cyril Fersing.

Mathilde Guérin
Mathilde Guérin

After graduated from ECPM (European Engineering School of Chemical, Polymer and Materials), specialized in molecular chemistry, in Strasbourg and she obtained her Master’s degree of molecular and supramolecular chemistry at the University of Strasbourg. She performed several interships in Medical Chemistry as well as in private and academic research laboratories. In particular, she was able to work about Chikungunya virus during 7 months in Vienna (Austria). Now, Mathilde Guérin is currently doing a PhD on hybrid hydroxyapatite particles for the wound healing treatment.

Titouan Montheil
Titouan Montheil

After graduated from ITECH school engineer in Lyon and obtained a Master degree at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, with both a specialisation in polymer chemistry and materials applied to life sciences, Titouan received his PhD from the University of Montpellier in 2020, under the supervision of Prof. Gilles Subra. During this project, he worked with a company to develop news hybrid hydrogel with sol-gel technology. He started a postdoc in November 2020 to develop news hybrid materials through sol-gel technology and to extent this process to various fields of interest.

Quentin Donati
Quentin Donati

Quentin graduated from both ECPM (European Engineering School of Chemical, Polymer and Materials) and ESBS (Strasbourg Graduate School of Biotechnology) with the ChemBiotech Engineer’s Degree (Chemistry and Biotechnologies). He performed an internship in biotechnology in Estonia before integrating the IBMM team for a 6 month internship working on exploration of new modalities for the targeted degradation of proteins. He continues to work on the project he started since.

Anna Puszko
Anna Puszko

Anna received her PhD in 2018 at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw (Poland). She continued her research as Research Assistant and later Assistant Professor. In 2020 she obtained MSCA fellowship and started a postdoc at the University of Montpellier in the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM), under the supervision of Dr. Jean-François Hernandez. Her current research is focused on pseudopeptides as a potential treatment in malaria. The interdisciplinary project is carried out in cooperation with the Pasteur Institute in Paris. See more deails at https://annakpuszko.wixsite.com/peptides/peptides-as-sub1-inhibitors !

Laurine Raimond
Laurine Raimond

Laurine joined the IBMM team in September 2020 as an engineer under the supervision of Pr. Gilles Subra and Pr. Ahmad Mehdi. She graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Rennes (ENSCR) in 2019, where she followed the course of Molecular Chemistry. She performed several internships in medicinal chemistry in private companies and academic research laboratories (Kingston upon Hull, UK). She is currently working on several topics: in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), she is developing hydrogels based on silylated hyaluronic acid for the repair of spinal cord lesions; and in collaboration with Genevrier Laboratories, she is developing multifunctional silicone dressings by grafting of hybrid biopolymers.

Mylene Sejalon-Cipolla
Mylene Sejalon-Cipolla

Mylene graduated from the National Chemistry School of Montpellier, majoring in Biochemistry and Organic chemistry. After one year spent at the Oxford University where she worked on the synthesis and analysis of glyco-derivative antivirals for HIV and Hepatitis treatment, she started her PhD at IBMM under the supervision of Dr. Sonia CANTEL and Pr. Gilles Subra. Begining her third year, she is currently working on the synthesis and evaluation of designed activity based probes for inflammatory diseases early diagnosis for MALDI mass spectrometry and MALDI imaging.

Miyanou Rosales-Hurtado
Miyanou Rosales-Hurtado

Miyanou holds a masterʼs degree in Molecular and Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Bordeaux. In 2019, she received her Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry at the University of Nîmes on the development of potential inhibitors of histidine kinase under the supervision of Prof. Meffre and Dr. Benfodda. She joined the IBMM as a postdoctoral researcher in 2020 where her current interest concerns how to overcome bacteria resistance mediated by β-lactamase.

Abdelaziz Ejjoummany
Abdelaziz Ejjoummany

Ejjoummany Abdelaziz received his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Orleans in 2020 under the supervision of Pr. Sylvain Routier in the field of Design and functionalization of original heterocycles bicyclic [5-5] and tricyclic [6-5-6] with potential therapeutic. After a post-doctoral period at the University of Caen Normandy (UNICAEN), Biomedical Imaging Center CYCERON in the group of Pr. Cecile Perrio, Currently, he is working in the field on pseudopeptides as potential treatments of malaria, at the University of Montpellier in the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM), under the supervision of Dr. Jean-François Hernandez.

Pauline Adler
Pauline Adler

Pauline Adler obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2016 at the University of Paris-Saclay, under the supervision of Dr. N. Rabasso. She joined the group of Pr. N. Maulide at the University of Vienna in Austria as a post-doctoral fellow for two years (2017 – 2018). After this, she became an Assistant Professor at the University of Montpellier and worked in the group of Dr. C. Grison for two years (2018 – 2020). In 2020, she joined IBMM as a post-doctoral researcher, working with Dr. J.-F. Hernandez on pseudopeptides as potential treatments of malaria.

Raquel Gutiérrez-Climente
Raquel Gutiérrez-Climente

Raquel received her PhD in 2015 at the department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Basque Country (Spain). After a first 2 years Postdoc fellow in the department of Enzyme and Cell Engineering at the University of Technology of Compiègne (France), she is since 2019 a Postdoc at the University of Montpellier in the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM) and the Institute Charles Gerhardt (ICG). Her present research interest include affinity technology, hybrid materials and molecularly imprinted polymers for protein recognition in biomedical applications.

Prisca Lagardère
Prisca Lagardère

Prisca graduated in Organic Chemistry and Life Sciences from the University of Bordeaux in 2018. During her several internships, she has been working on small molecules synthesis and she developed a keen interest on medicinal chemistry. Currently in third year of PhD, she is working on the synthesis and the characterization of new antimalarial thienopyrimidinones.

Yohan Malki
Yohan Malki

Yohan Malki is graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie of Montpellier, major in organic chemistry in 2018. He has performed several internships in medicinal chemistry in industry and overseas (Sherbrooke, Canada). Currently, Yohan is doing his PhD on the synthesis of 1,3-diazepine derivatives for the treatment of melanoma with Prof. Nicolas Masurier at the Institute of Biomolecules Max Mousseron in Montpellier, France.

Manon Maurel
Manon Maurel

After graduating from a Master degree in Chemistry at Nice Sophia Antipolis University, Manon started working on enzyme inhibitors at IBMM for her internship. Then, she continued as a chemical engineer working on the development of malaria treatment using solid phase peptide synthesis and organic chemistry. Afterwards, she worked on peptides and nanoparticles applied for cancer treatment, leading to the publication of various articles. Recently, she is working on the synthesis of peptides and peptide analogues for the treatment of glioblastomas.

Amandine Sandoval
Amandine Sandoval

Amandine work in e-dressing project under the supervision of Gilles Subra and Brice Sorli (IES). This PhD consists in the development of a smart wound dressing able to detect an enzymatic activity and to transmit information by passive RFID (radio frequency identification). The RFID device will be included into the dressing, in contact with the wound exudates. The antenna of the RFID device, will be grafted by a layer of hybrid material, sensitive to the degradation by enzymes related to the inflammation or infection of wounds.

Alice Legru
Alice Legru

Alice graduated from Master’s degree in Chemistry of Biomolecules from University of Montpellier. She just obtained a PhD, working on the synthesis and physico-chemical characterization of enzyme inhibitors as anti-microbial drugs under the supervision of Jean-François Hernandez and Laurent Gavara. She continued as a postdoctoral researcher working on the development of metallo-β-lactamases inhibitors to fight the bacterial resistance to β-lactam antibiotics.

Christophe Cantelli
Christophe Cantelli

During his studies at the School of Pharmacy of Marseille, Christophe completed several internships in Medicinal Chemistry. In 2015, he moved to IBMM to do his master’s degree that he pursued with a PhD project. He is currently working on antibody-radiolabeled drug conjugates in cancer research in collaboration with the Institute of Cancer Research of Montpellier (IRCM) and acquired skills in radiobiology as well as synthetic chemistry.

Laurine Valot
Laurine Valot

Laurine Valot graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier, major in organic chemistry and biochemistry. She performed her PhD on 3D bio-printing of hybrid hydrogel with mesenchymal stem cells to repair articulations, in the IBMM peptide team. She is now pursuing new research in the development of hybrid peptide-based foams and multifunctional hybrid peptide-based hydrogels for cell culture with a short Post-doc position in the team.

Julien Giribaldi
Julien Giribaldi

Julien was recently addopted by IBMM Peptide! After obtaining his master’s degree in biomolecule chemistry for health at the University of Montpellier. Julien began his PhD at the IBMM in 2016, supervised by Dr. Sébastien Dutertre and Pr. Christine Enjalbal, he works on the discovery, identification and synthesis of bioactive molecules derived from venoms.

Alexandre Messerschmitt
Alexandre Messerschmitt

Alexandre studied physics and chemistry at the University of Aix-Marseille. Then, he passed a Master degree in bimolecular chemistry at the University of Montpellier. Nowadays, he is in his third year of a PhD at IBMM, under the supervision of Dr. Muriel Amblard. He is synthetizing and characterizing new foldamers obtained from conversion of peptide sequences.

Lisa-Maria Recnik
Lisa-Maria Recnik

Lisa graduated in Technical Chemistry from the University of Technology in Vienna in 2011. She spent one year as an Erasmus student at CPE Lyon. She then moved to the University of Bristol where she completed her PhD project on the development of novel inhibitors of kainate receptors under the supervision of Profs. Willis and Jane. In 2017, she joined the IBMM as a postdoctoral researcher working on the development of antibody-radiolabeled drug conjugates in collaboration with the IRCM.

Kevin Bourbiaux
Kevin Bourbiaux

Kévin Bourbiaux graduated from the University of Lille, major in “Chemistry and Life Sciences, Bio-organic Chemistry” in 2016. He has performed several internships in Medicinal Chemistry in the INSERM U1177 unit in Lille, working on small molecules synthesis. He is currently doing a PhD under a CIFRE agreement with SANOFI on foldamers and stapled peptides to inhibit protein-protein interaction in the field of cardiovascular diseases.

Julie Aguesseau
Julie Aguesseau

Graduated with an Engineer’s Degree in Chemistry and Process Engineering from ESCPE Lyon in 2016, Julie Aguesseau is currently doing a PhD on the design of bio-inspired catalysts based on foldamer architectures. She has previously completed a 6-months internship in R&D at Sanofi, working on cyclopeptides characterization and synthesis. She has also been working for one year on the synthesis and purification of potentially bioactive in the Medicinal Chemistry Department of Origenis GmbH, Germany.

Jordi Rull
Jordi Rull

Jordi Rull obtained a PhD in 2010 at the University of Barcelona, working on the asymmetric synthesis of bioactive compounds. After an experience as co-founder of the start-up SINECTOR Jordi pursued his career in France at CEA, The University of Nantes and University of Strasbourg. In 2017 he joined the group of Dr. Muriel Amblard working on foldamers and stapled peptides medicinal chemistry in collaboration with Servier.

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