Get to know me

Athena consulting is a young service company for the medical and scientific community and for the general public and patients, founded in 2018 by Christelle LIARD.

My inner strength is certainly my « patchwork cursus », which allows me to « navigate » along the drug development chain. I know the scientific academic environment but also the pharmaceutical industry world as well as the “start-up culture”. I have also work with schools and the general public to translate scientific data in simple words. This allows me to interact with very different partners with distinct scientific “cultures” and knowledge. Early during my studies and career, I was “dropped into” a multicultural and multi-disciplinary environment. This can be seen nowadays in the way I work and interact with people.

Sciences and medicine passionate me. I still have today the curiosity and passion that I acquired in the past during my PhD studies in basic sciences. I am a rigorous person just as you are supposed to be as a basic researcher. I am clearly aware of the regulatory environment surrounding the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, I was trained to the specific methodology of clinical trials. I have written many scientific articles in international scientific reviews and I am also the co-inventor of several patents in the cancer immunotherapy field. I am also really concerned about the veracity of scientific concepts and data. I have worked with young children, the general public and patients making sure that science is explained in a rigorous and comprehensive way. Science must be available for everyone whatever education and level of comprehension people have.

To put it in a nutshell, I am a bit like a “cameleon”, being able to adapt to my different partners: this is what also makes my missions so rich and exiting. Being able to create medical and scientific supports, to form people in sciences and to advise partners at the different steps of the drug development chain are the bases of my job. My leitmotiv is certainly “science for everyone”. My job is also and before all a matters of people. You must be able to adapt to people specific needs and background at each step of a project. Scientific support and advising is a wonderful “human adventure” with men and women who share the same passion for science. The innovating science needs to be handled with humility. It must not be interpreted or biased because it is the one which one day, will help people to analyze complex situations in a rational way and most of all which will bring true benefit to patients.

Athena consulting is a young service company for the medical and scientific community and for the general public and patients, founded in 2018 by Christelle LIARD.

My inner strength is certainly my « patchwork cursus », which allows me to « navigate » along the drug development chain. I know the scientific academic environment but also the pharmaceutical industry world as well as the “start-up culture”. I have also work with schools and the general public to translate scientific data in simple words. This allows me to interact with very different partners with distinct scientific “cultures” and knowledge. Early during my studies and career, I was “dropped into” a multicultural and multi-disciplinary environment. This can be seen nowadays in the way I work and interact with people.

Sciences and medicine passionate me. I still have today the curiosity and passion that I acquired in the past during my PhD studies in basic sciences. I am a rigorous person just as you are supposed to be as a basic researcher. I am clearly aware of the regulatory environment surrounding the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, I was trained to the specific methodology of clinical trials. I have written many scientific articles in international scientific reviews and I am also the co-inventor of several patents in the cancer immunotherapy field. I am also really concerned about the veracity of scientific concepts and data. I have worked with young children, the general public and patients making sure that science is explained in a rigorous and comprehensive way. Science must be available for everyone whatever education and level of comprehension people have.

To put it in a nutshell, I am a bit like a “cameleon”, being able to adapt to my different partners: this is what also makes my missions so rich and exiting. Being able to create medical and scientific supports, to form people in sciences and to advise partners at the different steps of the drug development chain are the bases of my job. My leitmotiv is certainly “science for everyone”. My job is also and before all a matters of people. You must be able to adapt to people specific needs and background at each step of a project. Scientific support and advising is a wonderful “human adventure” with men and women who share the same passion for science. The innovating science needs to be handled with humility. It must not be interpreted or biased because it is the one which one day, will help people to analyze complex situations in a rational way and most of all which will bring true benefit to patients.

It was like I had been dropped into a whole new world, the world of science,

a world I could eventually discover freely.

Marie Curie – Scientific Physicist (1867-1934)

Curriculum

I was graduated from the ESBS (Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologies de Strasbourg) in 2007. I also performed a PhD in immunology in Paris (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) working on the cutaneous immune system. I showed with my co-workers that skin vaccination could be more efficient than the classical intramuscular route. Indeed, the cutaneous route can trigger efficient immune responses notably against chronic diseases such as cancer or HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus).My work was published in several scientific journals and my thesis was translated into a scientific review on skin vaccination in an international journal.

When I ended my PhD, I worked for a small biotech company at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which develops immunotherapies against cancer disease. With our co-workers and different private and academic partners (quality managers, CRO (clinical research organizations), patent specialists…) we performed the preclinical studies which allowed a universal cancer vaccine to access to the clinics (IMPD, Investigational Medicinal Product Dossier  filing for the French Health Authorities). My experimental work was granted with the publication of 4 patents of which I am a co-inventor and by several scientific publications.

I then joined the parmaceutical industry where I first work as a national medical expert in transplantation (immunosuppressor molecules for transplant patients) . This experience allowed me to develop strong interactions with Key Opinion Leaders in the field of cardiac, renal and liver transplantation. It was also a way for me to get into the world of “clinical trials” and to familiarize with its regulatory environment. After this experience, I have taken part to the launch of a new biotherapy against immune related rheumatisms (anti-IL17). I was in charge of the phase III clinical trials follow-up (registration trials for filing of the drug in Europe), supervised national adboards of experts and organized national symposia with many experts in the field.

After this first experience in the parmaceutical industry, I worked as an « early assets » medical expert for France in a company developing immunotherapies against cancer. I was in charge of coordinating and implementing the early phase trials (Phase I and II) for France. I closely worked with the US head quarter and the preclinical research US teams. My major goal was to prove that France was attractive enough to perform such trials on its territory, an important role because it involves access to new therapies for patients with cancer. I have also interacted closely with the “market access” teams to implement methology strategies within clinical trials protocols to facilitate Market authorization for new cancer drugs in France and allow their reimbursement by the social insurance.

I have then decided to go back to the « academic world » and I currently work for a French research site labeled by the French National Cancer Institute (INCa). As a program manager, my job consists in driving strategically and operationally cancer multidisciplinary research programs. I closely work with oncologists, surgeons and basic researchers. An important part of  my job consists in managing the cancer research community. I set up medical and scientific events with my co-workers, manage the international expert advisory board…I am also in charge of all academic and private research partnerships for the community and the regional network.

For many years I have been working with young children at school trying to educate them to the concept of the “immune system” and vaccination. I also teach at the ESBS as an external consultant in the field of clinical trials methodology and regulation as well as making them discover the pharmaceutical environment. In my current position I have also the opportunity to work with cancer patients trying to give them access to the concept of cancer research and its importance for the discovering of future treatments.

The “How” question is the key to all great discoveries

Should’nt we always be asking questions ? Indeed the question mark in certainly the path to wisdom

Balzac – Artist Writer (1799-1850)

Expertises

My inner strengths are certainly my knowledge of both the academic and medical scientific environment, as well as the way I talk of science with everyone. I can deal with basic researchers, physicists or private partners from the drug development world as well as the general public and children. I have worked in different scientific areas but I have always kept a strong appetence for immunology and vaccinology. I have also succeeded in building a strong and efficient network of medical and scientific experts in France, the US and in Europe. Working with patients, children and non-scientists oblige me to be objective, clear and simple in the way I explain the Science. This is a real added-value for my partners as it allows me to drive “tailor-cut” projects.

 

Achievements

Publications

J Cell Sci. 2020 Feb 24;133(4). pii: jcs243824. doi: 10.1242/jcs.243824. Auguste P1,2, Leitinger B3, Liard C4, Rocher V5, Azema L6,7, Saltel F6,5,8, Santamaria D6,9.

Mice.Pliquet E, Ruffie C, Escande M, Thalmensi J, Najburg V, Combredet C, Bestetti T, Julithe M, Liard C, Huet T, Wain-Hobson S, Tangy F, Langlade-Demoyen P.Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2019

Calvet CY, Thalmensi J, Liard C, Pliquet E, Bestetti T, Huet T, Langlade-Demoyen P, Mir LM. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev

Soria A, Boccara D, Chonco L, Yahia N, Dufossée M, Cardinaud S, Moris A, Liard C, Joulin-Giet A, Julithe M, Mimoun M,Combadière B, Perrin H.Exp Dermatol

Scientific communications

Animation d’une table ronde “vision du partenariat académique en oncologie”- BORDEAUX – FRANCE

Animation d’une table ronde  “Forum Santé Innovation – La Tribune” les « hot topics » de la R&D et de la filière santé – Bordeaux – FRANCE

Table ronde « innover en cancérologie » lors des « Brights Days » de BRIO – Bordeaux – France

Organisation scientifique d’un colloque européen pour l’industrie pharmaceutique (80 oncologues européens et équipes américaines) – Marseille – France

Congrès français de vaccinologie-Marseille (Société Française d’Immunologie) Communication orale : « Targeting of HIV-p24 particle-based vaccine into differential skin layers induces distinct arms of the immune responses”

Ouverture du projet européen Cut’Hivac (Cutaneous and Mucosal HIV vaccination) Paris, France – Poster : « Generation of a humanized mouse model for preclinical testing of vaccines »

European Congress of Immunology (ECI, Berlin, Germany) – Poster : “Tailor-cut quality of the immune response par the choice of a pertinent cutaneous route of vaccination”

Patents

2 patents published in March 2013
Immunotherapy to treat cancer in cats and dogs
2 patents published in March/September 2013
Immunotherapy against cancer using DNA skin vaccination and electroporation

Contact

ATHENA
Consulting Sciences & Santé

SASU au capital de 10 000€
SIRET 84364532600029

 06 64 44 60 38

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