Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet

Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet obtained a PhD in chemistry of natural products in 1988 at the University of Paris 11 (France), under the supervision of Prof. H.P. Husson. The same year, she accepted a postdoctoral position in Cellular & Molecular Plant physiology at the University of Paris 6 (Dr J.C. Kader). In 1990, she was recruited as junior researcher at CNRS, in the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique Biologique, URA 493 CNRS-Paris 6 University (Prof. A. Marquet). She started her independent research career in 1995 as CNRS researcher at the University of Lille 2. She obtained her habilitation in 1997 and was promoted to CNRS Research Director in 2001, in Pasteur Institute & the present Centre of Infection & Immunity of Lille. In 2001, she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan University (Prof. G. Kenyon, Prof. C. Williams Jr) as Visiting Scientist for 1 year to acquire an experience in physicochemistry of flavoenzymes and in the synthesis of mechanism-based inhibitors of human and malaria parasite P. falciparum thioredoxin reductases. Back to Europe, she was invited by Profs. H. Schirmer and K. Becker at the Biochemistry centre (BZH) of Heidelberg University as an independent group leader to develop antiparasitic therapeutic chemistry. After 9 years, she moved to Strasbourg University where she is presently group leader of the bio(In)organic & medicinal chemistry team in the research unit “Laboratoire d’Innovation Moléculaire et Applications” UMR CNRS 7042-LIMA of Strasbourg University (lima.unistra.fr). She has published >100 peer-reviewed publications including 80 dedicated to anti-infectious medicinal chemistry, 9 patents, 2 books chapters and been invited at >40 (inter)national conferences. She is member of the International Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry, Strasbourg (http://www.icfrc.fr/en/). Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet has pioneered the design and synthesis of redox-cyclers, and the understanding of their mechanism of action via cascades of redox reactions inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS). She discovered the antimalarial lead 3-benzyl-menadione (bMD), called plasmodione, affecting the redox equilibrium of P. falciparum-infected red blood cells. The rationale of her research is based on the interplay of redox cascades, involved in the drug metabolism and hemoglobin catabolism, leading to the specific release of ROS and the death of the parasites. The oxidative stress induced by plasmodione mimics the natural and partial resistance of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH)-deficient individuals against severe malaria. Her present projects aim at: i) developing innovative (bio)organic & medicinal redox chemistry of the bMD scaffold as new chemotype with cross-antiparasitic activities to contribute to the development of antimalarial, anti-Chagas, and antischistosomal drugs; ii) deciphering the modes of action (MoA) of the lead bMDs by the design of chemical tools for bioimaging and drug activity-based protein profiling (ABPP).