Christophe Mulle awarded by the Académie des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Bordeaux

Valérie Crépel (Research Director INSERM) at the University of Aix-Marseille and Christophe Mulle (Research Director CNRS) at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience have been awarded the 2022 Prize for Scientific Innovation of the Académie des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Bordeaux. The award recognizes the two scientists for their exceptional achievement in the field of scientific innovation and development.

Valérie Crépel and Christophe Mulle are interested in the physiology and pathology of the hippocampus, a region of the brain located in the temporal lobes, which is the seat of memory and learning. Their highly innovative research focuses on the therapeutic approach to the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy. This pathology affects 1.3 million people in Europe and the United States, including 800,000 patients who are resistant to known treatments. Christophe Mulle and Valérie Crépel propose gene therapy as an alternative to surgery and its drawbacks. Their therapeutic proposal is developed within Corlieve Therapeutics: it uses microRNA technology, nucleic acids capable of acting at the level of messenger RNA to selectively reduce aberrant effects of kainate receptors in the hippocampus of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.