To better understand the very aggressive triple negative breast cancer, the Oncopole of Toulouse is hiring a talented physicist

Toulouse has just taken a new step in the fight against breast cancer, with the creation of the Oncobreast research chair at the cancerology center. Supported by the Toulouse Cancer Santé Foundation, Inserm and Oncopole, it benefits from funding of 2 million euros, half of which is provided by the TotalEnergies foundation, and has just been awarded to Dr Lorenzo Scipioni who will working on new ways to fight breast cancer, in particular the very aggressive triple negative cancer.

Microscopy, artificial intelligence combined with biology

“Each year, 61,000 new cases of breast cancer are recorded and there are 12,000 deaths. If 88% of patients have a 5-year survival rate, it is only 15% for those with cancer of the ‘triple negative’ breast”, explains Gilles Favre, director of the Toulouse Cancer Santé Foundation. To improve the chances of these patients facing this “cancer which is a serial killer, we must advance research to advance care. This is the DNA of the Oncopole, a care center which combines teams and supports research. As in the Top 14, to make a winning rugby team, we need a third of the staff coming from local, a third from national and a third from international. We need champions and Dr Lorenzo Scipioni. is a champion.”

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With around ten people eventually, this physicist will look at how cancer cells behave using technologies that he developed when he was in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of California. “I work on the development of computer programs and on advanced microscopy, we study the subtleties of cells. The images we obtain contain more information about cells than we think. The objective is to bring together doctors, engineers and biologists to succeed in understanding the mechanisms underlying the formation of metastases”, poses the 36-year-old researcher.

Like a doctor, who would check the heart, the lungs or even the functioning of the liver of his patients, thanks to the technology he has developed, he will auscultate the cells, which also have small organs, which we call ‘organelles’, which regulate their breathing, their digestion, their movement, their ‘thought’ By combining chemical tools, highly advanced microscopes and computer science, including artificial intelligence, we can have access to these. information,” he continues.

And if it is the triple negative that is in the sights of this new team, the head of the Toulouse Cancer Research Center which welcomes it to its premises, Dr Pierre Cordelier, hopes that their results can be used elsewhere: “if we find it for one type of cancer, it is not impossible that we find it for others.” He does not hesitate to also highlight the interest in developing patronage, often a necessary step to finance and attract new talents. And keep them too.