Marlene Dreux passed away

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Marlène Dreux, Inserm Researcher at CIRI, on Tuesday March 18, 2025.

Marlène Dreux joined the École normale supérieure de Lyon for a magistère in 2002, where she defended her thesis on the entry of the hepatitis C virus into cells in 2007, as part of the human virology unit. She then left for a brilliant post-doctorate at the Scripps Research Institute, where she focused on the role of autophagy in hepatitis C virus replication. She then widened her field of research to the mechanisms by which different viruses prevent the initiation of an effective immune response, which has remained her favorite area of study.

On her return to France, she passed the CR competition at Inserm, and quickly set up her own team at CIRI, entitled “Viruses, Innate Immunity and Vesicular Traffic”, in line with her research themes. There, she made several major discoveries, notably on the mechanism of detection of many viral infections by plasmacytoid dendritic cells, which depends on cell contact and the formation of a structure she named “interferogenic synapse”.

Marlène also made a major contribution to the center's scientific activities, inviting numerous international colleagues and helping to organize several conferences (IRCI, InnaSCo, French dendritic cell club, etc.). Marlène had recently joined another team where she was starting a new dynamic, but unfortunately her health took a sudden turn for the worse. 

With CIRI and LBMC colleagues and friends at IRCI 2022

Marlène was brilliant, extremely hard-working, as demanding of others as she was of herself, always smiling despite the difficulties she had to overcome. We have lost a colleague, for some a friend, and once again our thoughts are with her family and all those who knew her.  

During CIRI retreat in Chamonix in 2016