Dr. Raphaël Rodriguez, a brilliant chemist working on cancer biology has just been awarded with the 2019 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, a prestigious international prize dedicated to chemists aged under 40 for their exceptional creativity and dedication in organic chemistry or bioorganic and pharmaceutical chemistry.

For this 20th edition of the Tetrahedron Symposium held in Thaïland, he had the opportunity to present his work in a talk entitled "Reprogramming the reactivity of iron in cancer cells" at Mahidol University in Bangkok. This was also the chance for him to explore future research collaborations between Mahidol University and PSL University (Paris Sciences et Lettres).

Raphaël Rodriguez, CNRS research director, joined the Institut Curie in 2015 to add a biological approach to his research. "As a chemist, I have a great deal to learn from biologists and physicians at Institut Curie," explains the head of the Chemistry and Biology of Cancer team (Institut Curie/CNRS/Inserm/PS)." He led his research on small molecules that target lyosomal iron and regulation of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition by iron in the chromatin.

In May 2014, Raphaël Rodriguez and his team from the CNRS synthesized a small molecule - remodelin - that can correct the faults in the chromatin structure observed in cellular ageing by targeting acetyl-transferase NAT10.

He and his team are currently developing different techniques such as imaging of small molecule imaging, high-throughput sequencing and proteomics to explore the action mechanisms of these small molecules on tumor stem cells.