Catherine Metayer, Chair in Paediatric Oncology Research awarded to and laureate of the Choose France for Science program, is participating in a roundtable at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research
Catherine Metayer (Inserm), a physician-epidemiologist, obtained an international Chair from Inserm to launch a new program imPACT – Childhood Cancers: Partnership for Research on the Exposome and Genome of Childhood Cancers, within the research area on epidemiology of childhood and adolescent cancer) in the OPPaLE team.
As part of the ten-year strategy to fight cancer, Inserm launched in 2024 the international attractiveness programme “Chair of Research in Paediatric Oncology”. Dr Catherine Métayer, a physician epidemiologist in California (University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health), internationally recognised for her research on the role of the environment in the development of leukaemias in children, has successfully obtained this Chair position with her programme: imPACT – Childhood Cancers: PArtnership for Cancer Exposomic and GeneTic Research for Children. Dr. Metayer is also a laureate of a national program for attracting high-level researchers—Choose France for Science (Choose France for science | enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr), which will strengthen the capacities of her new research program.
imPACT-Childhood Cancers will establish a transdisciplinary ecosystem to comprehensively evaluate the impact of environmental chemicals, social factors, and genomics on the childhood cancer continuum from etiology to clinical outcomes. Major innovations include home sampling and biomarker studies to identify thousands of molecules and shed light on early-life origins of childhood cancers. The program will be developed within the research area focused on epidemiology of childhood and adolescent cancer, in the OPPaLE team, which has longstanding recognized expertise in pediatric cancer epidemiology and leads the national childhood cancer observation platform (HOPE-EPI/CCOP). This ambitious program will help consolidate and develop French and international epidemiological research on pediatric cancers. Dr. Metayer started her position as Research Professor at the University of Paris Cité in early May 2026 in the CRESS, at the Villemin site.
Dr. Metayer is also one of the 50 laureates of Choose France for Science, a national competitive program to recruit talent in various scientific disciplines (see link) and which co-finances imPACT – Childhood Cancers. During a roundtable on the attractiveness of France and the internationalization of French research organized by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Dr. Metayer shared her experience on the conditions for hosting foreign scientists in the United States over recent decades and the recently transformed landscape of American research, which contrasts with the new opportunities for conducting innovative epidemiological studies on childhood cancers in France. The exchanges between the different participants in the audience—Minister Philippe Baptiste, researchers, coordinators of funding agencies, and journalists—highlighted the importance of respecting intellectual and scientific freedoms and encouraging risk-taking to promote innovation.
- Choose France for science | enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr
- Table ronde ouverte sur l’attractivité de la France et l’internationalisation de la Recherche française | enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr
Par Catherine Metayer
