Foundation for Medical Research: a Lebanese alumni wins the Odette-Maria Rouanet prize

Every year, the French Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (Foundation for Medical Research) awards numerous awards to outstanding researchers. Among these, the Odette-Maria Rouanet prize is intended to finance the doctoral contract of a young researcher during the first three years of his/her thesis. This year's winner is alumni Alissa Tarraf, a doctoral student at the Mondor Institute, who did part of her studies in Lebanon before continuing them in France.

The award ceremony, which took place digitally in early November, was an opportunity for the Foundation to “bring to light exceptional scientists who, by dedicating their lives to research, are paving the way for tomorrow’s therapies”, thanks to the generosity of its donors. The Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) is an independent French organisation which presents itself as the “largest charity funder of overall French biomedical research”. Every year, it funds more than 400 new research projects on all diseases in order to “contribute to the development of innovative and pioneering research, leading to medical progress for all”.

Finding answers to health challenges

In addition to its Grand Prix, which in 2020 went to Giacomo Cavalli, Director of Research at the CNRS, for the importance of all his work devoted to epigenetics, the FRM has also awarded 13 Scientific Prizes, 4 Research Prizes and 2 Communication Prizes. These awards all pay tribute to exceptionally talented researchers and personalities, “honoured to acknowledge their dedication in fighting diseases throughout the country”. The Foundation stressed that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this event feels special, as “never before have researchers been so much in the frontline in finding answers to health issues”.

Supporting research in a particular field

The Odette-Maria Rouanet Prize is awarded in the Research Awards category. The prize is worth 102,600 euros, and aims at financing the doctoral contract of a young researcher during the first three years of his/her thesis in cardiology.

Alissa Tarraf, a doctoral student in the Senescence metabolism and cardiovascular diseases team at the Mondor Institute for Biomedical Research (Inserm UMR U955, University of Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne) won this year’s award. Alissa Tarraf holds a Bachelor's degree in Life and Earth Sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of the Lebanese University of Beirut, and she continued her studies afterwards with a Master’s degree (Master 1) in Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of Paris Sorbonne. She then focused on heart diseases with a Master 2 course in Research, also in France, with an internship at the Mondor Institute for Biomedical Research.

The Research Prizes encourage research in a particular field and the winners of these Prizes are chosen by scientific committees made up of specialists. The prizes were created on the initiative of private individuals, thanks to a donation, gift or bequest, to support specific research in the field of their choice. That is why they bear the name of the donor or that of a close relative to whom they wish to pay tribute.

More about this topic:

- press release of the Foundation for Medical Research

- prize presentation leaflet with portraits of the winners

Photo credsits: by FRM — www.frm.org, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link