Invited Speakers

Julien Nicolas

CNRS Director of Research

Institut Galien Paris-Saclay, head of the group Nanomedicines for the treatment of severe diseases

University Paris-Saclay, CNRS

Orsasy, France

Group Website: https://julien-nicolas.cnrs.fr/

Julien Nicolas received his PhD degree in 2005 from the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris, France), where he studied nitroxide-mediated polymerization and emulsion polymerization. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) on polymer-protein bioconjugates, he obtained in 2007 a permanent CNRS researcher position at Institut Galien Paris-Saclay (Châtenay-Malabry, France) and got promoted Director of Research at CNRS in 2016 and group leader in 2019. His current research activities lie in advanced macromolecular synthesis and in the design of innovative polymer-based nanomedicines, in particular polymer nanoparticles and polymer prodrug nanocarriers for anticancer therapy. He is (co)author of more than 125 peer review articles in international journals, 7 patents and 13 book chapters. His is the co-founder if the startup company Imescia which aim is to develop hydrophilic polymer prodrugs for the administration of highly active anticancer drugs. He serves as Associate Editor for Chemistry of Materials (ACS) and is part of the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Macro Letters (ACS), Macromolecules (ACS) and Polymer Chemistry (RSC). He received the 2016 SCF/GFP award, the 2017 Polymer Chemistry Lectureship award, the 2017 Novacap Prize of the Academy of Science, the 2018 Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award and the Prix des Innovateurs de la Région Île-de-France in 2023.

Representative Publications

[1]   Subcutaneous Drug Delivery from Nanoscale Systems. Tomasini, L.; Ferrere, M.; Nicolas, J. Nature Rev. Bioeng. 2024. DOI: 110.1038/s44222-024-00161-w

[2]  Gao, P.; Ha-Duong, T.; Nicolas, J. Coarse-Grained Model-Assisted Design of Polymer Prodrug Nanoparticles with Enhanced Cytotoxicity: A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study. Angew. Chem.; Int. Ed. 2024. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202316056

[3]   Degradable Polyisoprene by Radical Ring-Opening Polymerization and Application to Polymer Prodrug Nanoparticles. Lages, M.; Pesenti, T.; Zhu, C.; Le, D.; Mougin, J.; Guillaneuf, Y.; Nicolas, J. Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 3311

[4]  A Polymer Prodrug Strategy to Switch from Intravenous to Subcutaneous Cancer Therapy for Irritant/Vesicant Drugs. Bordat, A.; Boissenot, T.; Ibrahim, N.; Ferrere, M.; Levêque, M.; Potiron, L.; Denis, S.; Garcia-Argote, S.; Carvalho, O.; Abadie, J.; Cailleau, C.; Pieters, G.; Tsapis, N.; Nicolas, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 18844

[5]  Vinyl Copolymers with Faster Hydrolytic Degradation than Aliphatic Polyesters and Tunable Upper Critical Solution Temperatures. Bossion, A.; Zhu, C.; Guerassimoff, L.; Mougin, J.; Nicolas, J. Nature Commun. 2022, 13, 2873

[6]  Supramolecular Organization of Polymer Prodrug Nanoparticles Revealed by Coarse-Grained Simulations. Gao, P.; Nicolas, J.; Ha-Duong, T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 42

[7]  A Facile Route to Heterotelechelic Polymer Prodrug Nanoparticles for Imaging, Drug Delivery and Combination Therapy. Vinciguerra, D.; Denis, S.; Mougin, J.; Jacobs, M.; Guillaneuf, Y.; Mura, S.; Couvreur, P.; Nicolas, J. J. Control. Release 2018, 286, 485

[8]  Degradable Polymer Prodrugs with Adjustable Activity from Drug-Initiated Radical Ring-Opening Copolymerization. Guégain, E.; Tran, J.; Deguettes, Q.; Nicolas, J. Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 8291

[9]  Degradable Vinyl Polymers for Biomedical Applications. Delplace, V.; Nicolas, J. Nature Chem. 2015, 7, 771

[10]       Nanoparticles with In Vivo Anticancer Activity from Polymer Prodrug Amphiphiles Prepared by Living Radical Polymerization. Harrisson, S.; Nicolas, J.; Maksimenko, A.; Bui, D. T.; Mougin, J.; Couvreur, P. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 1678