Biogen and PSL sign a cooperative agreement to promote therapeutic research

Under this partnership – the first such agreement that Biogen has signed with a French university – doctoral candidates selected by a Science Committee will receive scientific and financial support for a period of up to four years. The program is designed for both Biogen employees who wish to pursue a doctorate and PSL students interested in working with Biogen in connection with their doctoral dissertation. Every year, Biogen and PSL will each submit the names of two candidates to the Science Committee, which will select the winners. The program may host up to ten student-researchers at one time. The Science Committee will include an equal number of representatives from Biogen and PSL’s schools and institutes, and will operate under the aegis of PSL.

The partnership is intended to help student-researchers further their research under the attractive conditions made possible by Biogen; develop their skills to ensure their research meets the highest international standards, thanks to the supervision provided by PSL’s research directors; become familiar with the operations of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and the challenges those industries face; help stimulate the scientific ecosystem through multicultural exchanges on an array of topics; and actively contribute to the development of new therapies in the fields of rare, neurological and autoimmune diseases. As part of the program, the doctoral candidates selected will each receive personalized dual mentoring from both PSL researchers and Biogen scientists. They will make an annual scientific journey to the United States to meet with Biogen’s US workforce, and they will take part in a symposium held each year in Paris and hosted by PSL. In addition, regular training sessions and workshops will be conducted for participants in the program.

The Science Committee, consisting of Chris Henderson and John Beaver from Biogen and Renata Basto and Alexandre Baffet from PSL, met in July 2018 and selected four candidates. Work on the first PhDs began in October. Each doctoral candidate will present a progress report on their research during a seminar to be held annually. The goal is to expand the program’s scope over the coming years. Topics may span a variety of disciplines, including the neurosciences, quantitative biology, chemistry and imaging. The partnership between PSL and Biogen is also expected to lead to other types of collaborations in which the Science Committee could play a driving role.

Says Martin Dubuc, President-Managing Director of Biogen France, “We are delighted to be entering into this partnership with PSL, one that expresses our tangible commitment to scientific and medical research in France. Exchanges between the scientific and business worlds are a rich asset and indeed a necessity in order to develop innovative therapies tailored to patient needs.”

Adds PSL Vice President for Development Cédric Denis-Rémis, “The partnership between Université PSL and Biogen provides an excellent opportunity to develop leading-edge research on behalf of innovations in the field of health care. As a forceful sign of PSL’s community engagement, it reflects our mission of training a generation of young researchers who are committed to the growth of biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry.”

The four dissertations selected in 2018 are as follows:

• Anna Nawrocka: “Regulation of neural stem cells and neuroregeneration by long noncoding RNAs.”Anna is doing her doctoral dissertation at the Institut Curie under the direction of Alena Shkumatava and at Biogen under the supervision of Jessica Hurt.
• Clémentine Hatton: “Dendritic calcium signaling and activity of cerebellar Purkinje cells in vivo.” Clémentine is doing her doctoral dissertation at the Institute of Biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure/PSL under the direction of Stéphane Dieudonné and Vincent Villette, and at Biogen under the supervision of Mihaly Hajos.
• Christine Liu: “The role of post‐translational modifications in α‐synuclein aggregation and toxicity.” Christine is doing her doctoral dissertation at Biogen under the supervision of Blake Pepinsky and at the Institute of Biology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure/PSL under the direction of Antoine Triller and Christian Specht.
• Karl Richter: “Interactions of RAN dipeptides with the nuclear envelope and nuclear import and export proteins.” Karl is doing his doctoral dissertation at Biogen under the supervision of Alexander McCampbell and at the Institut Curie under the direction of Graça Raposo.