CIBM | Center for Biomedical Imaging

CIBM PCI HUG-UNIGE Molecular Imaging Section

Laurene Abjean is a neuroscientist with expertise in neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinflammation and translational therapeutic strategies. During her PhD (2015–2019, Université Paris-Saclay, France), she investigated the role of reactive astrocytes in Huntington’s disease. By modulating astrocyte reactivity through viral targeting of the JAK2–STAT3 pathway, she demonstrated that astrocyte reactivity triggers a protective proteostasis response that reduces mutant huntingtin aggregation and improves neuronal integrity in different mouse models. She then joined as a postodoral researcher Servier laboratories, a french pharmaceutical company, where she developed new seeding-based cellular and mouse models of tauopathies and synucleinopathies to assess disease-modifying therapeutic strategies. In this context, she demonstrated the efficacy of a novel oligonucleotide-based therapy targeting protein aggregation. In 2023, she joined the research group of Prof. Philippe Millet as a postdoctoral researcher (Psychiatry department, HUG, Molecular Neuroimaging in Psychiatry Lab, UNIGE), where her work focuses on ultrasound-mediated blood–brain barrier opening using low-intensity focused ultrasound (LiFUS) as a non-invasive strategy to enhance brain drug delivery. She has validated LiFUS protocols in rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on immunotherapy. In January 2026, Laurene Abjean joined Kelly Ceyzériat in CIBM PCI HUG-UNIGE Molecular Imaging Section to extend these approaches to neuro-oncology through the development of a LiFUS-based research project in glioblastoma.

Keywords: Neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinflammation, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), low-intensity focused ultrasound (LiFUS), glioblastoma, translational therapeutic strategies, preclinical models