Franco-Canadian scientist Michel Sadelain was awarded a “Science Oscar” on Saturday April 13 in Los Angeles for his research which made it possible to program cells of the immune system to fight cancer.
This genetic engineer was awarded the Breakthrough Prize, during a ceremony bringing together big names in tech, such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, and an avalanche of celebrities, including Jessica Chastain, Robert Downey Jr and Bradley Cooper. His work has made it possible to develop a new form of therapy, called CAR-T, which is very effective against certain blood cancers.
“This award is an extraordinary recognition,” Mr. Sadelain told Agence France-Presse, on the red carpet at the Oscars Museum. It is all the more an honor since (…) my scientific colleagues told me for a long time that it would never work. » The Breakthrough Prize was launched by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in the early 2010s to reward breakthroughs in fundamental research. It claims to be a sort of “Oscars of science” and is today better endowed than the Nobel Prize.
Mr. Sadelain will thus share 3 million dollars with the American Carl June, an immunologist who also worked on the subject. “The greatest pleasure, however, is to see patients (…) who no longer had any chance and who thank us, who are alive today thanks to CAR-T cells,” explained the scientist, who first studied in France and Canada before settling at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
“Living Medicines”
Concretely, Mr. Sadelain's research made it possible to genetically reprogram T lymphocytes, which are the little soldiers of the immune system. The latter then acquire receptors capable of recognizing and fighting cancer cells, which the body normally allows to proliferate because it is not aware of their harmfulness.
These chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) also tell T cells to multiply so they have more disease fighters. This way of treating cancer was initially “science fiction,” smiles Mr. Sadelain. Today, the researcher is delighted to see that an entire industry has developed to produce these “living medicines”.
Thanks to his work and that of Carl June, half a dozen therapies using this method have been approved in the United States, and hundreds of other clinical trials are underway. The patient's T cells are first collected, modified outside the body, and then injected back into the bloodstream. The treatment has proven effective against lymphomas, certain leukemias, and even against myeloma, a serious and complex blood cancer.
But Mr. Sadelain hopes that the research could make it possible to “apply this treatment to other cancers.” “CAR-T cells could perhaps work against autoimmune diseases, diseases like lupus, and maybe one day diseases like diabetes and multiple sclerosis,” he says. One of the main challenges also remains reducing the costs of treatment, currently estimated at more than $500,000 – an amount generally covered by insurance.
Around twenty other scientists were rewarded during the Breakthrough Prize, in several categories. Distinguished research included effective medications to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, a fatal lung disease, and the discovery of the most common genetic causes of Parkinson's disease.
