CV

Nabila BOUATIA-NAJI, PhD

 

 

 Director of research at the INSERM

French Institute for Health, Basic and Medical Research

 

Year of Birth: 1978

Languages fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic

  

Address                                                                                                   

PARCC: PARis Cardiovascular research Centre

Universite de Paris and Inserm       

Team 3 director: Genetics to Understand the Pathophysiology of Arterial Disease

56 rue Leblanc F-75015 Paris, FRANCE                                                                  

Phone. +33 (0) 1 53 98 79 95                                                                  

Fax. +33 (0) 1 53 98 79 52

Email. nabila.bouatia-naji(at)inserm.fr

Twitter: @n_bouatianaji 

 

Current Positions

2019-2023

                          INSERM labeled Team Director (Team 3 PARCC): Genetics to Understand the Pathophysiology of Arterial Disease

Sept 2017-22 

                          ERC-Team Director of Genetics and Functional Genomic Studies of Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) and Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD)

 

Previous Positions

Sept 2011-17

Research Associate and group leader at the Inserm, Paris Descartes University at the PARCC

I was leading a “Genetics and Functional Genomics of Cardiovascular Disease” group that applies genome-wide association and whole exome sequencing to decipher the genetic basis of common and rare forms of Fibromuscular Dysplasia and Mitral Valve Prolapse.

 

Oct 2009 - August 2011

Research Associate, at the CNRS, Institut Pasteur de Lille.

I conducted several GWAS-based studies individually and within international consortia, mainly within MAGIC (magicinvestigators.org) to understand the genetic basis of quantitative traits related to type 2 diabetes and obesity.

 

Feb 2007 - Sept 2009

Inserm postdoctoral fellowship at the Inserm-U690, Paris, CNRS-UMR8090, Lille.

I performed genetic studies of smallness for gestational age and GWAS to decipher the genetics of fasting glucose and T2D

 

Feb 2006 – January 2007

The British Medical Research Council career development fellowship at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

I worked on the genetics of weight gain (DiOGenes FP6 project) and resistance to insulin traits in large British population-based cohorts

 

Successful funding applications

 

ERC Starting Grant 2017-2022 (PI)

1,500,000 euros to study the genetics and functional exploration of FMD and SCAD loci and genes 

 

Fédération de Cardiologie 2019-2021 (PI)

100,000 euros to study the genetics of SCAD

 

Fondation Coeur et Recherche 2019-2021

150,000 euros to study the genetics and cell models of SCAD 

 

ANR Translational Program (Co-PI)

130,000 euros to study the functionality of 2 MVP risk loci 

 

Medical Research Foundation (Equipe FRM 2015-2018, Co-PI) 

175,000 euros to study the molecular basis of genetic association with Fibromuscular Dysplasia

 

Young investigator Funding from the French National Agency (ANR JCJC 2013-2017, PI) 

300,000 euros to study the genetics of Fibromuscular Dysplasia

 

Nord-Pas-De-Calais Region and Government (Contrat-Plan-Etat-Region, PI)

200,000 euros to study the genetics of metabolic traits using metabochip

 

French speaking Diabetes society (ALFEDIAM)/Servier (2008-2009) 

20,000 euros to study the genetics of fasting glucose

 

Awards for research excellence

 

2016         Winner of the International Conference of Human Genetics meeting Young Investigator Award, Kyoto, Japan. Awarding the study on genetics of Fibromuscular Dysplasia.

2014         Finalist of the AHA Functional Genomics and Translational Biology (FGTB) Young Investigator Award for a genetic study of mitral valve prolapse.

2009         French Academy of Sciences: Great achievements in the field of biology of 2009: awarding the study of the genetics of fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes.

 

Post graduate diplomas

 

2011         HDR (Habilitation à diriger des recherches, diploma for PhD supervision and research direction), Faculty of Medicine, Lille 2-Droit-Santé University, Lille, France.

2006         PhD in Human Genetics, -“Genetics of common forms of obesity and type 2 diabetes in French Cohorts”. Faculty of Medicine, Lille 2-Droit-Santé University, Lille, France

2004         University Diploma for post-graduates in “Biostatistics applied to clinical research and epidemiology”

 

Under graduate education

 

2001         DEA (Master Degree equivalent). Sciences and Technology University (USTL), Lille, France.

1999         Licence (BA equivalent) of Molecular and cellular biology at the USTL, Lille, France.

 

Over 12 presentations as an invited speaker in national and international conferences (Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai Hospital NY, European Society of Cardiology), in addition to several peer-reviewed abstracts for oral presentations and  posters (AHA, ASHG, ESHG, ICHG, ADA and EASD) 

 

Mentoring

§  Mentoring of 4 postdocs (Takiy Berrandou, Sergiy Kyryachenko, Adrien Geogres and Siying Huang) and 4 PhD students: Soto Romuald Kiando: genetics of Fibromuscular Dysplasia (2013-2016, 3 articles), Mengyao Yu: genetics of Mitral Valve Prolapse (2015-2019), Lu Liu: functional genomics at FMD and SCAD loci (2018-2022), Ines Sadeg-Sayoud: Genetics of FMD and SCAD. 

§ Mentoring of several research assistants and Master students (medical and scientific students) molecular genetics, statistical genetics from France, USA, Lebanon, Tunisia, Benin, Italy. 

 

Institutional Duties

§   Member elected of the board of Femmes et Sciences association, to promote scientific careers to girl pupils, support scientific women in leadership 

§   Member elected to represent professor and research associates at the scientific council of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris Descartes University (2013-2018)

§  Early career committee vice-chair (2017-2019) of the Genomics and Precision Medicine Council of the AHA (2016-2018) and chair (2018-2020). Mission: to mentor young fellows and participate in reviewing activities for award applications and abstracts scoring of the annual meeting

§  Member of the Steering committee of GWAS consortia (Since 2010): MAGIC (genetics of glucose and Insulin) and CKDGen (Genetics of kidney function). Mission: assess and validate project proposals