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Marc Peschanski
Director of INSERM U421 Henri-Mondor

Marc Peschanski is currently taking a semi-sabbatical year between his INSERM unit and England, where he is spending time at the University of Southampton and advising the biotechnology company CAPSANT Neurotechnologies.

Entering the INSERM in 1982, Marc Peschanski completed a DEA (postgraduate diploma) and a PhD on the neurophysiology of pain in Jean-Marie Besson's unit at Sainte-Anne Hospital (Paris) and the laboratory of HJ Ralston in San Francisco (USA). His senior thesis examined the anatomy and physiology of pain.

Changing his research subject, he then studied the plasticity of the nervous system and brain cell transplants. He founded his own laboratory and became Director of INSERM Unit 421. He initiated the team that carried out transplants of fœtal brain cells in patients with Parkinson's disease (1991, first in France) and Huntington's disease (1996, first in the world), a hereditary nervous system disease for which there is currently no cure. The results enabled the launch of a European study carried out in 7 countries.

Marc Peschanski was one of the founders of the European neurotransplant network (NECTAR), of which he was the first chairman in 1991-92. He also originated the Centre d'Investigation Clinique at the Henri-Mondor hospital, a candidate for extension in biotherapies.

Marc Peschanski is a medical doctor with a further PhD in neuroscience. He is a member of the board of governors of the Société des Neurosciences.