The 2018 Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers was awarded to postdoctoral student Félicie Costantino for her work on spondyloarthritis.

Understanding spondyloarthritis and diagnosing it better

Félicie Costantino divides her time between her patients at the Ambroise Paré Hospital’s Rheumatology Department in Boulogne-Billancourt and her research at the Inserm Infection and Chronic Inflammation laboratory Her research is on spondyloarthritis, a chronic inflammatory rheumatism that affects 90,000 people in France in its severe form.

Dr. Costantino's project aims to identify the genetic factors involved in the development of spondyloarthritis, the inheritance of which is poorly understood. Her post-doctorate, a continuation of her PhD, will focus on decoding the role of variable DNA sequences in modulating certain disease-related genes.

Félicie Costantino in a few words

PhD thesis in science: “The Search for New Genetic Factors of Susceptibility to Spondyloarthritis Using an Approach Combining Family Studies and Functional Genomics", under the direction of Dr. Maxime Breban, Cochin Institute (Paris), Graduate School of Genetics, Cellular, Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Development, Université Paris Descartes

 PhD thesis in medicine: “Diagnosing Latent Tuberculosis in Patients with Latent Tuberculosis and in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Rheumatism Who Are Candidates for Biotherapy: Factors Affecting the Result of an Interferon Gamma Release Test", under the direction of Professor Isabelle Chary-Valckenaere - Specialization in Rheumatology, Henri Poincaré University Nancy I

POST-DOCTORATE: “The Contribution of Genomics to Understanding the Genetics of Spondyloarthritis: the Value of Regulatory Variants", under the supervision of Professor Julian Knight, Wellcome Trust Centre For Human Genetics, Oxford, United Kingdom

Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers

Created in 1990, the Bettencourt Prize for Young Researchers is one of the first initiatives of the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller. Until 2021, this prize was awarded each year to 14 young doctors of science or doctors of medicine, to enable them to carry out their post-doctoral stay in the best foreign laboratories. 349 young researchers were distinguished. The prize endowment was €25,000.

All the award-winners