FNS Post-doc
University of Lausanne (UNIL) and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV)
Affiliations
University of Lausanne, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM)
Lausanne University Hospital, CardioVascular Magnetic Resonance research center (CVMR)
Lausanne University Hospital, Radiology Department (CHUV)
Contact
Email: helene (dot) lajous (at) unil (dot) ch
Phone: +41 21 3141537
Postal address: Centre de Recherche en Radiologie (RC7), Rue du Bugnon 46, CH-1011 Lausanne
Office: Rue Centrale 7, 4th floor, CH-1003 Lausanne
Research interests
Passionate about the tremendous advancements achieved in MR imaging to tackle crucial challenges, I envision medical research as a collaborative and translational work that aims at addressing the true needs of physicians while considering the patients’ welfare. As such, I am deeply committed to lead my research in a highly interdisciplinary environment dedicated to clinical applications.
- Medical imaging: fetal MRI at 1.5T (Siemens) and parametric mapping;
- Cellular and preclinical MRI (Bruker): formulation and characterization of MR contrast agents at 7T, quantitative cellular MRI at 4.7T, dynamic hepatocyte-specific contrast-enhanced MRI in the rat at 7T, longitudinal studies in rodent models of glioblastoma;
- Neurosciences: fetal brain development, body mass index, computational neuroimaging, super-resolution (SR) reconstruction, voxelwise genome-wide association studies (vGWAS) on gray matter volume;
- Cancer research: tumor biology;
- Pharmaceutical sciences: design and formulation of multifunctional nanodevices.
Short Bio
Hélène graduated as a biomedical engineer from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG, France) in 2013. She specialized in quantitative MR imaging (Clinatec, France) and approached the challenges of genetic imaging with a deep interest in neurosciences (NeuroSpin, France).
In 2014, Hélène got involved in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Nanomedicine and Pharmaceutical Innovation (EMJD NanoFar) between the Research Center in Oncology and Immunology Nantes Angers (CRCINA, France) and the Center for Education and Research on Macromolecules (CERM, Belgium). During her PhD, she acquired a strong hands-on experience at the crossroads of medical imaging, pharmaceutical sciences, tumor biology, and preclinical models, and developed a multimodal macromolecular nanoplatform dedicated to the local treatment of glioblastoma. From 2015 to 2017, Hélène also taught various subjects related to her research at the Department for Biological Engineering of the University Institute of Technology of Angers (IUT Angers, France). She graduated as a PhD in biomedical technologies in 2018.
Since 2019, Hélène has been working as a post-doctoral researcher (Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) project 182602) in the Medical Image Analysis Laboratory (MIAL). Her project aims at developing quantitative MR imaging schemes for computer-assisted diagnosis of the in utero fetal brain.
Publications
- Rethinking alkylating(-like) agents for solid tumor management. H. Lajous, B. Lelièvre, E. Vauléon, P. Lecomte, and E. Garcion. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 40 (5), 342-357 (2019).
- Cisplatin: an old drug to tackle new challenges. Development of a multifunctional macromolecular prodrug for the local treatment of glioblastoma. H. Lajous. Médecine humaine et pathologie. Université d’Angers, Université de Liège. French (2018).
- Hybrid Gd3+/cisplatin cross-linked nanoparticles enhance platinum accumulation and formation of DNA adducts in glioblastoma cell lines. H. Lajous, R. Riva, B. Lelièvre, C. Tétaud, S. Avril, F. Hindré, F. Boury, C. Jérôme, P. Lecomte, and E. Garcion. Biomaterials Science, 6 (9), 2386-2409 (2018).
- In vivo quantification of magnetically labeled cells by MRI relaxometry. U. Gimenez, H. Lajous, M. El Atifi, M. Bidart, V. Auboiroux, P.H. Fries, F. Berger, and H. Lahrech. Contrast Media and Molecular Imaging, 11 (6), 535-543 (2016).