The Best of the AACR Journals Collection: Author Profiles

Pierre Sonveaux

Title & Affiliation:
Extraordinary Professor and Research Director of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS), Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research (IREC), Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Brussels, Belgium

Most-cited Article:
Mitochondria Participate in Chemoresistance to Cisplatin in Human Ovarian Cancer Cells

Q: What is your primary area of study/research?
A: We study cancer metabolism in the context of translational research. My team has three main focuses: (1) studying and targeting the oxidative pathway of lactate in cancer and host cells, (2) understanding and targeting the metabolic control of (tissue-specific) metastasis in order to develop preventive strategies, and (3) characterizing and targeting the metabolic control of cancer resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Q: What influenced your decision to embark on a research career?
A: I decided to take the biomedical research track at the end of high school. As I wanted to have a broad view of the field, I chose to be trained as a pharmacist. This was/is based on two major motivations: (1) curiosity, in the sense of pioneering/discovering new worlds at the microscopic scale, and (2) the willingness that my passage on Earth would serve humanity. If my work could contribute to save even a single human life, then my objective would be reached.

Q; What excites you most about your research area?
A: Based on the answer to the previous question, the feeling that my team would be the first one to observe a biological mechanism, thus unravelling the beauty and the complexity of nature, motivated by the need to help cancer patients who fight for their life. On top of this, as an academic researcher, my wish is to train students who would surpass their teacher by their intelligence, creativity, and productivity.

Q: What do you do for fun outside of work? What are your passions and hobbies?
A: Believe it or not, but I am a stamp collector, which is grounded in a keen interest in history, geography, and culture. It concretely results in holidays in weird places, driven by the philatelic history of these places. This year, one will find me in Heligoland (a remote German island in the North Sea), Saint Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla islands in the Caribbean, UN Vienna, and probably Greenland.

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