Catherine Brenner receives the International Cell Death Society Lifetime Achievement Award
The International Cell Death Society (ICDS) presented the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award to Catherine Brenner during its annual summit, held at the Institut Necker–Enfants Malades in Paris from 27 to 29 May 2026.
Catherine Brenner, CNRS research director, director of the Metabolic and Systemic Aspects of Oncogenesis for New Therapeutic Approaches laboratory (Metsy - Université Paris-Saclay/Gustave Roussy/CNRS) and scientific director of a platform dedicated to the assessment of cellular metabolism, received this distinction in recognition of her outstanding career.
A specialist in mitochondria, metabolism and cell death, Catherine Brenner notably discovered, with her colleagues, the cooperation between Bax and ANT in mitochondrial apoptosis. She also highlighted the role of the permeability transition pore, a mitochondrial multiprotein complex, as a potential target for anticancer chemotherapy. Her current research focuses on metabolic flexibility, with the aim of identifying new biological mechanisms, therapeutic targets and small molecules capable of overcoming treatment resistance in adult and paediatric cancers, particularly osteosarcoma and lung cancer.
Within Metsy, her team “Metabolic Plasticity in Pathophysiology” investigates how the AIF/CHCHD4 complex regulates the metabolic flexibility of cancer cells. The team also studies the consequences of disrupting this protein interaction from a therapeutic perspective, particularly for paediatric cancers. In addition, the team is assessing the potential of combining electrochemotherapy and glutathione in the treatment of head and neck cancers (Coll S. Beckechus, ANR-DFG 2026–2028).