Professor Philippe Clezardin BSc, MSc, PhD, DSc
Honorary Professor in Bone Oncology, University of Sheffield.
Understanding molecular mechanisms governing breast cancer cell colonization in the bone marrow and development of novel biomarkers for the identification of patients who are at risk of developing bone metastases
Professor Philippe CLEZARDIN graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Lyon, France, in 1983. He completed postdoctoral training at the Medical Research Council / Scottish National Blood Transfusion Center in Edinburgh (1984-1986). Philippe was then appointed as Research Scientist at INSERM (National Institute for Health and Medical Research) in 1987. He undertook a sabbatical (1990) as visiting scientist at the Ottawa General Hospital (Ottawa, Canada). On returning to Lyon in 1991, he obtained his DSc from the University of Lyon and became Senior Research Scientist at INSERM. He is now Head of team “Cancer and Bone Metastasis” at INSERM Research Unit UMR1033 in Lyon and Head of a European Associated Laboratory between Lyon and Sheffield whose aim is to study the role of noncoding RNAs in breast cancer bone metastasis. Before, he was Director of INSERM UMR1033 (2010-2020) and, earlier on, UMR664 (2005-2009), both Research Units being involved in the Pathophysiology and Treatments of Bone Diseases. He was also Director of the Federative Research Institute “IFR62” entitled: “Cancer, Nutrition and Metabolism” (14 laboratories, circa: 500 people; 2007-2010).
For the past twenty years, Philippe’s main research interest is in the characterization of molecular mechanisms that drive bone metastasis formation in breast cancer, with the goal of developing new biomarkers and anticancer therapies. He is currently working on the role of tumor-derived microRNAs in controlling metastasis-initiating capacities of breast cancer stem cells to bone. He has authored 163 publications with over 9,000 citations, and contributed to 17 chapters in textbooks on cancer research (Web of Science October 2021, h-index: 55). Philippe is member of the editorial board of the Journal of Bone Oncology (Elsevier) and Cancers (MDPI). He is Past President of the Cancer and Bone Society (2010-2012). He has been engaged, as academic partner or coordinator, in several european projects within the framework of FP6, FP7 and H2020 research programmes [MetaBre (2004-2007), PROMET (2006-2010), BONE-NET (2011-2014), miROMeS (2016-2017)]. He received a European Star Award (Paris, France, 2015) for the coordination of Marie Curie ITN project BONE-NET.
Philippe is now Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield, working at the Lyos research centre in France, but still actively collaborating with his former colleagues in Sheffield.
