Sylvie Mader and her team try to identify the causes of the diversity of mammary tumors and how they impact the response to the drugs used in breast cancer treatment. The group strives to better understand the response or resistance mechanisms to the drugs used in breast cancer treatment and to identify new therapeutic targets to optimize breast cancer treatment.

Research theme

Sylvie Mader’s team studies the signalling pathways involved in breast tumorigenesis, and the key transcriptional networks in the control of tumor phenotypes.

It seek to identify mechanisms of resistance to drugs inactivating estrogen receptors, one of the main targets in breast cancer, in order to improve therapeutic approaches.

They also aim at developing therapies better adapted to estrogen receptor-negative tumors.

Research objectives

The group uses genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics applied to in vitro or in vivo tumor formation models to study responses to therapeutic compounds.

The team notably elucidated the mechanisms of action of compounds used for breast cancer hormonal treatment and also identified effectiveness or resistance markers. This knowledge resulted in developing new and more effective therapeutic compounds that are currently being tested in pre-clinical models.

High-throughput screening approaches are also used to identify new targets or new molecules. Sylvie Mader’s team collaborates with bioinformaticians to better exploit large datasets, notably using artificial intelligence. Collaborations with clinician scientists have also been developed to test the results of basic research in a retrospective or prospective manner.