Our October Immunologist of the month is Olivier Boyer, one of Immunopaedia’s Steering Committee Members. Olivier Boyer is a Professor of Immunology, currently based at the Rouen University Hospital – France.
The Immunopaedia team conducted a video interview of Prof. Boyer, focusing on why he decided to be a Clinician Scientist,his research focus and his contributions to Immunopaedia Case Studies.
Name: Olivier Boyer, MD, PhD
Position: Professor of Immunology, Director of Inserm U1234 research laboratory ‘Pathophysiology, autoimmunity, neuromuscular diseases and regenerative therapies’ and Head of the Laboratory of Immunology and Biotherapy Rouen University Hospital – France.
Research Interests: autoimmune myopathies, immunoregulation, cell and gene therapy.
Why did you pursue both MD and PhD Studies?; Why did you start contributing to the Immunopaedia Case Study Page?; How do you envision the use of case studies ?
You are an active contributor to the Immunopaedia Case Studies Page, what prompted you to start contributing to the page? I love Immunopaedia clinical cases because are they a very dynamic way of teaching Immunology. Immunological diseases have been instrumental in understanding basic immunology, for example: myeloma to determine the structure of immunoglobulins; severe combined immunodeficiencies to decipher the role of major genes in immunity and so on. It is a good idea to start by a clinical case and then go to basic science rather the reverse. Well, maybe is it my biased Doctor view. See: IPEX Syndrome Case Study
How do you envision the use of case studies by both Immunologist and Clinicians who want to gain a better understanding of the immunology behind different immunopathologies ? Of course. The idea to start from a clinical case in order to illustrate a fundamental aspect of immunology is very helpful in terms of pedagogy. This applies to biologists as well as clinicians. If a deficient immunological pathway causes disease, it is important for both biology and medicine, no?
What is autoantibody pathogenicity? What autoimmune disorders as associated with autoantibody pathogenicity? How has your research contributed to improved patient diagnosis ?
Why are murine models a useful tool for immunologists ?
Interview by Cheleka AM Mpande
