Carine Michiels, a "radioactive" teacher

In fact, I began my research in biology with a doctoral dissertation on hyperoxia—that is, the impact of excess oxygen on cells. At the time, I was working in Professor José Remacle’s lab, where he was studying aging. Aging is characterized by oxidative stress and the formation of free radicals, to which cells can adapt through antioxidant enzymes. To study these, we decided to somewhat exacerbate the situation and create conditions in which oxygen was present in excess. We obtained good results, but this was not a physiological situation. We then turned our attention to the phenomenon of hypoxia-reoxygenation—as occurs during a heart attack—which causes an increase in free radical production during reoxygenation.

We expected to observe changes in the cells during the reoxygenation phase. However, exactly the opposite happened! The majority of the responses occurred during the hypoxia phase—that is, during oxygen deprivation. At the time, this phenomenon had been studied very little. We realized that it triggered a host of effects, particularly in relation to cancer. This research led to a Nobel Prize in 2019.

My research thus led me to become a specialist in how cells respond to various forms of stress. This line of research has also proven extremely fruitful, as we discovered that hypoxia is a major factor in cancer cells’ resistance to various therapies, including chemotherapy. One day, my colleague, physicist Stéphane Vincent, asked me if it was possible to study the cellular response to radiation, particularly proton radiation. More precise than X-ray irradiation, this technique is achieved using a particle accelerator, which UNamur has at its disposal. While this technique was beginning to be used in radiation therapy, the cellular response to it had, however, been studied only to a limited extent.

So-called conventional X-ray radiation therapy lacks precision, which means that healthy tissue surrounding the tumor is also affected by the radiation. To minimize this, we are looking for a way to increase the effects of the radiation within the tumor. This makes it possible to deliver a lower dose of radiation, with fewer side effects on healthy tissue, while maintaining the same therapeutic effect on cancer cells. To achieve this, we use gold nanoparticles, which, due to their unique properties, make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation. However, even though there is still a great deal of enthusiasm surrounding these particles due to the positive results obtained, no treatment has yet been approved by regulatory authorities, which underscores the importance of continuing research.

First and foremost, this is an award recognizing my research as a whole, which is a wonderful scientific acknowledgment of my work. But I want to take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of scientific collaboration, particularly that of physicists Stéphane Lucas and Anne-Catherine Heuskin. Without their contributions, none of this work on radiation therapy would have been possible. We must also acknowledge the importance of Télévie, which has helped fund numerous dissertations on this topic.

This chair also includes a series of five lectures that I will deliver in Mol (province of Antwerp). In addition to the inaugural lecture, which took place in June, these lectures will focus on hypoxia and its effect on resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the use of nanoparticles as radiosensitizers, and synthetic lethality—a field we have also studied extensively—which involves creating synergy between chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Finally, the last lecture will focus on one of my future areas of research, which concerns immunogenic cell death. The idea is to irradiate cancer cells in such a way that their death activates the immune system against the cancer cells.

This role involves, in particular, managing the funding and organization of research, institutes, and technology platforms through a body known as the Research Council. The Council allocates the various funding sources with the greatest possible transparency. During my two terms in office, I was deeply committed to supporting a diverse range of research topics, in order to provide each with the tools best suited to its needs.

I have also been in close contact with the vice-rectors for research at other French-speaking universities in Belgium. Our goal was to speak with one voice to various stakeholders—from the Walloon Region to the European Union—in order to present a unified set of demands. This was very important to me, and it enabled us to make significant strides, such as securing special funding for technology platforms—which allowed us to acquire state-of-the-art measuring instruments—and establishing an interuniversity platform for alternatives to animal testing.