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- Impulscience Program: Fondation Bettencourt Schueller visits the teams it supports at Institut Curie
On June 22, a delegation from Fondation Bettencourt Schueller visited the Institut Curie Research Center to meet the researchers supported through its Impulscience program. During the visit, plaques were unveiled in the laboratories of Dr. Chunlong Chen, Dr. Alexandre Baffet, and Dr. Raphaël Ceccaldi, the three Institut Curie researchers who have received this prestigious funding since the program was launched in 2022.
Launched in 2022, Fondation Bettencourt Schueller's Impulscience program supports seven life science researchers each year whose projects address particularly ambitious scientific questions. Each laureate receives €2.3 million over five years to advance long term research, recruit new team members, acquire cutting edge equipment, and develop innovative experimental approaches.
On June 22, Fondation Bettencourt Schueller visited Drs. Chunlong Chen, Alexandre Baffet and Raphaël Ceccaldi, Institut Curie's three Impulscience laureates, during a visit marked by the unveiling of plaques in their laboratories. The delegation, composed of Sylvie Corréard, Chief Executive Officer of Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, Dr. Céline Poucin, Director of Scientific Philanthropy, and Dr. Mariana Ramos Brossier, Scientific Philanthropy Project Officer, was welcomed by Dr. Claire Rougeulle1, Director of the Institut Curie Research Center, who accompanied the delegation throughout the visit. The visit also highlighted the infrastructure, core facilities, and scientific expertise that support the development of the funded projects.
"Fondation Bettencourt Schueller's support is invaluable. It enables our researchers to pursue particularly ambitious fundamental scientific questions with the time and resources they require. It is a key driver for generating new knowledge and opening up new avenues of research," said Claire Rougeulle.
Chunlong Chen, CNRS Research Director, Deputy Director of the Dynamics of Genetic Information: fundamental bases and cancer (DIG-Cancer) unit (CNRS UMR3244 / Sorbonne Université) and head of the Replication Program and Genome Instability team within the unit, became Institut Curie's first Impulscience laureate in 2022. His project focuses on the regulation of DNA replication and genome instability. This funding has enabled him to strengthen his interdisciplinary team and develop innovative approaches in bioinformatics, single cell genome sequencing, and high throughput single molecule analysis.
In 2023, Alexandre Baffet, Inserm Research Director and head of the Cell Biology of Mammalian Neurogenesis team (CNRS UMR144 / Sorbonne Université), received Impulscience funding for his research on neocortex development and neural stem cell behavior. Thanks to this support, his team is expanding its live imaging approaches to monitor the long term development of cerebral organoids.
In 2025, Raphaël Ceccaldi, Inserm Research Director and head of the Alternative DNA Repair Mechanisms in Human Cancers team (Inserm U1339 / CNRS UMR3666), joined the Impulscience laureates with a project dedicated to DNA repair mechanisms during mitosis, particularly in certain tumor cells. The funding enables his team to investigate these mechanisms at an unprecedented level of resolution through the acquisition of a high resolution microscope and the expansion of his research team.
1 Director of Institut Curie’s Research Center, CNRS Research Director, and head of the Sex Chromosomes, Development and Disease team (CNRS UMR3244/CNRS UMR3215/Inserm U934/Université Paris Cité / Sorbonne Université).
