Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve

Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve obtained her MD in Paris in 1984. After her residency in neurology, she worked as a “chef de clinique” in neurology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital for 2 years, and then moved for 3 years to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda in the Molecular biology research laboratory headed by Prof. RA Lazzarini.

She is currently a Professor of medical genetics at University Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Director of the National French Reference Genetics diagnostic lab for neurovascular disorders in the Lariboisière hospital in Paris, and Director of the Inserm U1161 research center dedicated to Genetics and pathophysiological mechanisms of neuro-vascular disorders.

Her main research interest over the past 25 years has been hereditary neurovascular disorders. She characterized the clinical features of several hereditary neurovascular disorders, revealed their molecular basis and developed diagnostic tools for these conditions to improve clinical care and genetic counseling for patients and families. Specifically, her team identified the genes involved in CADASIL, a paradigm for cerebral small vessel disease, and in cerebral cavernous angiomas. Her team also generated highly relevant mouse models for FCCM, which showed the essential role of endothelial CCM proteins in venous beds, which are currently used for preclinical trials. Recently, she became involved in the deciphering of moyamoya angiopathy mechanisms.