Sylviane Muller
Chair of Therapeutic Immunology
Sylviane Muller obtained doctorates in molecular biology and in sciences at the University of Strasbourg and was a postdoctoral researcher in Freiburg (Germany) at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. Her field of expertise covers autoimmunity, immuno-peptides and synthetic vaccines. She was chair and director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) Unit "Immunopathology and therapeutic chemistry" (2001-2017), and former director of the CNRS Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) in Strasbourg (2016-2017). Her teams studied the molecular and cellular bases of the normal immune response and dysfunction in order to find novel strategies to treat autoimmune, tumoral and infectious diseases. In August 2018, she became an Emeritus research director (she was previously a distinguished class research director in CNRS) and continues to carry out research with her team in the laboratory of "Biotechnology and cell signaling", a joint research unit of the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg.
From 2011-2020, Sylviane Muller directed the Medalis Drug discovery center for cancer and inflammation, a 'Laboratory of Excellence’ funded by the Excellence Initiative of the University of Strasbourg. Medalis is succeeded, as of 1 January 2021, by the new Strasbourg Drug Discovery and Development Institute (IMS), of which Professor Muller is the first director, and which has as objective to respond to the challenges faced by the pharma industry. Professor Muller holds some 30 patents and has published over 385 publications and review articles/chapters. She co-founded two companies: Neosystem (now Polypeptide-France) in 1986 and ImmuPharma-France in 2002. With numerous registered patents and the creation of two companies, her laboratory carries out competitive fundamental research with tangible results that are of benefit to society. With her team, a significant breakthrough was the discovery and patenting of a molecule that is capable of correcting the immune system in an autoimmune disease - systemic lupus erythematosus, for which no specific treatment currently exists - and which is proving relevant to other chronic inflammatory diseases.
The CNRS awarded Sylviane Muller a Silver Medal (2010) and an Innovation Medal (2015), a prestigious award that recognises individuals whose outstanding research leads to significant technological, therapeutic and societal innovations. She also received the Léon Velluz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (2016), and was a Finalist of the 2017 European Inventor Award (category "Research"). In 2017 she was awarded a Prix d'honneur and an Innovation Trophy by the French Arthritis Foundation. She was elected as member of the chemical sciences section of the Academia Europaea and of the Chemistry division of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) in 2020. Professor Muller was promoted to the rank of Officer of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2021, after having been named as Knight (2010), and Officer of the National Order of Merit (2016).
In the USIAS Board, Professor Muller holds the position of Secretary of the Board, supporting the Director in representation and in strategic decision-making.
