Permanent staff

Fanny Roussi is a pharmacist and completed a PhD in Organic Synthesis in Henri-Philippe Husson’s group (Paris Descartes University). Later on, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow in Jack Baldwin’s group at Oxford University, on the biomimetic synthesis of a family of natural compounds. In 2001, she joined the CNRS as a researcher. In 2003, she joined Thierry Sévenet, Françoise Guéritte and Daniel Guénard’s group to work on the synthesis of bioactive natural compounds before becoming a senior researcher and team leader since September 2013.

  fanny.roussi@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 31 21

Marc Litaudon received his Pharmacy degree in 1982 (Faculty of Pharmacy of Paris XI), and started a scientific career in Clinical Pharmacology as “Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris” and Clinical Research Pharmacist. In 1991, he received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Marine Chemistry Department at the University of Canterbury (NZ). In 1994, he joined the CNRS as a Research Engineer, and served in New Caledonia for 6 years as Head of “Laboratory of Medicinal Plants”. In 2001, he joined the ICSN, and since then, he is responsible for the management, valorisation, and scientific development of the “ICSN Extract Library”, the largest collection of natural extracts of the French public research body.

  marc.litaudon@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 30 85

Vincent Dumontet is a Pharmacist and Doctor of the University Paris V René Descartes – PhD defended in 2000 under the direction of Thierry Sévenet and Françoise Guéritte. He joined the CNRS in 2000 as a Research Engineer at the ICSN in Thierry Sévenet, Françoise Guéritte and Daniel Guénard team, and worked on plant crop programs and research projects in phytochemistry on endemic plants (New Caledonia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Uganda). He received an HDR in November 2014. Since December 2014, he is responsible for the Laboratory of Medicinal Plants of Noumea, the advanced antenna of ICSN in New Caledonia, where he implements link research with the Department of Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry.

  vincent.dumontet@cnrs.fr      +687 26 08 15

Sandy Desrat is a chemical engineer from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Mulhouse (ENSCMu). He obtained his Ph.D. in 2010 from Rennes 1 University under the supervision of Pierre van de Weghe after dealing with the total synthesis of a lichenic natural compound. Later on, he joined the laboratory of Pr. William B. Motherwell in University College of London (UCL) for one year before working in the team for more than 2 years on the pharmacomodulation and the biomimetic synthesis of natural compound analogues. After an other Post-Doc experience in the group of Francine Acher with Dr. Nicolas Pietrancosta in Paris Descartes University in 2014, he worked as a project manager in NovAliX pharma, Madrid for 10 months. In 2015, he joined the CNRS as a researcher to work on the synthesis of natural bioactive compounds.

  sandy.desrat@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 80

Cécile Apel graduated from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (ENSAIA). In 2008 she was appointed as a natural product chemist at the CNRS-ICSN for isolation and identification of secondary metabolites from plants. In 2013 she went to Dublin (UCD, Agriculture and Food Science Centre) where she worked on recovery of valuable compounds from food waste. In 2015 she came back to the ICSN as an engineer where she works on research projects in metabolomic and phytochemistry.

  cecile.apel@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 30 38

Engineers, Postdoc researchers and PhD students

Carole Guimard is a third year PhD student. She graduated with the Master’s degree « Polymers and active substances of natural origin » from the faculty of pharmacy of Nantes. She did her M1 internship in the team in 2019 and her M2 internship at the Servier Research Institute. She  was back in the team in 2020 thanks to a scholarship from the “Therapeutic Innovation” doctoral school of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Châtenay-Malabry. Her research project focuses on the synthesis of analogues of a natural product with a cytotoxic mechanism of action and biological probes to decipher it.

 carole.guimard@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 61

Clément Grisel is a third year PhD student graduated from the master « Pharmaceutical science », specialty : « Medicinal chemistry » of Paris-Saclay University. He did an internship in the team during his master 2. He stayed in the team as a PhD student thanks to a scholarship from the « Therapeutic Innovation » doctoral school of the faculty of pharmacy of Châtenay-Malabry. He is currently working on the synthesis of antiviral molecule and analogues derivated from a natural substance.

 clement.grisel@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 61

Linh Hoang Phan is a second year PhD student. She holds a Master’s degree in “Sciences, Technologies, Health”, specialized in “Organic Chemistry” from the University Paris-Saclay. She did her Master’s internship at ICSN in the “Marine metabolites” team where her research topic was the identification of metabolites isolated from a marine sponge active against osteoporosis. Her PhD research project focuses on the isolation and synthesis of antiviral specialized metabolites from Vietnamese plants.

linh.phan@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 61

Prisca Lagardère graduated with a Master of “organic chemistry and life sciences” from the University of Bordeaux in 2018.  She obtained a PhD in medicinal chemistry at the University of Montpellier in 2022. Her work focused on the synthesis of new heterocyclic molecules for antimalarial purposes. Today, she is a maturation engineer and works on a research project funded by the SATT Paris-Saclay. She is currently working on the synthesis of analogues of an antiviral natural compound.

prisca.lagardere@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 61

Isabel Ramon Martinez is a second year PhD student. She studied Pharmacy at the University of Alcala (Madrid), and then graduated with the Master 2 “Pharmaceutical Science”, specialty “Pharmaceutical chemistry”, from Paris-Saclay University. She did her Master 2 internship within our research group about the synthesis of fluorescent probes from a cytotoxic natural product. Isabel now works on the research and isolation of new natural inhibitors of antibiotic resistance enzymes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

isabel.ramon-martinez@cnrs.fr      +33 1 69 82 45 61

Where are they now?

Gwenaëlle Jézéquel (PhD 2020) : Postdoctoral fellow, Anna Hirsh’s group, HIPS, Saarbrücken, Germany.

Céline Rampal (Chemical engineer 2017-2019) : Chemical engineer, Mutabilis, Romainville.

Simon Remy (PhD 2019) : Lecturer, ICMR, Reims.

Florent Olivon (PhD 2018) : Mass spectrometry specialist, Waters, Guyancourt.

Tiphaine Péresse (PhD 2017) : Pharmacist, Paris.

Laure-Anne Peyrat (PhD 2016) : R&D project manager, Givaudan, Avignon.

Camille Remeur (PhD 2015) : Research associate, Evotec, Toulouse.

Mohamad Nurul Azmi (PhD 2014) : Lecturer, University of science, Penang, Malaysia.

Charlotte Geny (PhD 2014) : R&D project manager, Phytocontrol, Nîmes.

Louis-Félix Nothias (PhD 2014) : Research associate, Wolfender’s lab, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Olga Gherbovet (PhD 2013) : Researcher (medicinal chemistry), Evotec, Toulouse.

Mehdi Beniddir (PhD 2012) : Lecturer, University of Paris-Sud, Châtenay-Malabry.

Mélanie Bourjot (PhD 2012) : Lecturer, University of Strasbourg.

Sophie Técher (PhD 2012) : Researcher, APLAMEDOM, Reunion island.

Jérémy Dardenne (PhD 2012) : Computer engineer, Sopra Steria Group.

Pierre-Marie Allard (PhD 2011) : Researcher, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Dalia Fomekong-Fotsop (PhD 2010) : Lecturer, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Université des Montagnes”, Cameroun.

Claire Rannoux (PhD 2010) : R&D project manager, Groupe Swatch, Switzerland.

Aurélie Leverrier (PhD 2010) : R&D project manager, Yves Rocher, Paris.

Guillaume Marti (PhD 2009) : Lecturer, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse.

Claire Jolly (PhD 2007) : Manager actives and formulation, Laboratoires Urgo, Dijon.

Quoc Anh Ngo (PhD 2007) : Vice director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam.