Nelly Kieffer, itinerary of a researcher and patron of the arts.
As Nelly Kieffer frankly says, she’s had a wonderful scientific life thanks to the CNRS. An international career, in France, the USA, China and Luxembourg. Her gratitude and attachment to the CNRS have now led her to make a very generous donation to the CNRS Foundation to support research carried out in this prestigious institution.
Born in Luxembourg on July 20, 1950, Nelly Kieffer obtained a Diplôme de Biologie Médicale, IES, in Geneva, Switzerland in 1971. She began her career at the Hematology Laboratory of the Hôpital Cantonal de Genève, then at the Hematology Laboratory of the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris (1972-1973).
She then headed for Asia for the first time, joining the Chinese Red Cross Blood Transfusion Center in Taiwan from 1973 to 1975. She returned to Luxembourg in 1975 to work in the Immunology Department of the Laboratoire National de Santé, then in the Hematology Laboratory of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (1976-1979).
Her love of Asia led her to study for a Diplôme Supérieur de langue et civilisation Chinoise at theINALCOUniversity of Paris III, in 1976.
As a doctoral student in the laboratory of Professor Jacques CAEN, U150 INSERM in Paris (1980 – 1984), she simultaneously obtained a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and a DES in Hematology from the University of Paris 7 in 1981. In 1982, she obtained a Diplôme d’Etudes et de Recherche en Biologie Humaine in haematology, option biochemistry and physiology of haemostasis, at the Université Paris 7. She prepared her thesis and obtained her Doctorat d’Etat in Human Biology from Paris 7 University in 1984.
She then passed the competitive examination for 1st class research fellow and began her career at CNRS in Professor Jean ROSA’s Laboratory, INSERM U91/CNRS 607 at Henri Mondor Hospital in Créteil (1984-1988).
Her American adventure from 1988 to 1990 led her to become a Visiting Scientist in the Laboratory of Dr David PHILLIPS at the University of California, San Francisco. She then took part in the creation of COR Therapeutics Inc. The company conducts research and develops therapeutic agents for the treatment of severe cardiovascular disease, in particular for the prevention of embolisms with anti-thrombotics. Listed on NASDAQ, the company was subsequently acquired by Millenium Pharmaceuticals.
Promoted to Director of Research in 1990, she returned to Professor Jean ROSA’s Laboratory at Henri Mondor Hospital in Créteil, before becoming Director of the Centre de Recherche Public Santé (CRP-Santé) in 1992, a position she held until 2006. At the time, CRP-Santé’s research policy was highly innovative, as it was already at the crossroads of three major concerns: scientific excellence, social demand and the ability of partners to commercialize their innovations.
For many years, since her appointment in 1992, she has been a member of the Comité National de la Recherche Scientifique, serving on the board of the “Therapeutics and drugs: concepts and means” section in 2000. Her influence on the assessments is remarkable, not only for her scientific skills, but above all for the tone she sets in the debates: rigorous, scientifically literate, neutral, with immense respect for the debates she conducts in a direct and always relevant manner.
A leading specialist in blood platelets and integrins, she has published major works in this field, notably on talin, a multifunctional protein important in the connection of integrins to the cell cytoskeleton.
It was then that her long-standing attraction to Asia led her to become a Researcher at the Sino-French Life Sciences and Genomics Research Cluster at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital, affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine of Shanghai’s prestigious Jiatong University, from 2007 to 2012. During this time, she worked in the team dealing with genetic diseases of hemostasis.
Nelly Kieffer now lives in Luxembourg, in retirement, and is organizing her estate with lucidity and dignity, in the face of illness, thinking of her family heirs, but without forgetting the CNRS, the institution so dear to her.
Thank you, Madame Kieffer, for your career and your generous support for the research work of your successors at the CNRS!
CNRS and the CNRS Foundation
