Dr. Solange Desagher is a former student of the prestigious "Ecole Normale Supérieure" in Paris, France. She received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Paris VI in 1997 and performed her PhD work in the laboratory of Neuropharmacology of J. Glowinsky, in "Collège de France" in Paris, where she studied the role of astrocytes (a type of brain cell) in neuroprotection against oxidative stress. From 1997 to 1999, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of J.-C. Martinou in the Serono Pharmaceutical Research Institute, in Geneva (Switzerland), where she contributed to major findings about the role of Bcl-2 family proteins in mitochondrial control of apoptosis (cell death). In 2000, she was recruited as a permanent research scientist by the CNRS at the Institute of Functional Genomics in Montpellier (France), where she identified novel genes involved in neuronal apoptosis. She moved to the Institute of Molecular Genetics of Montpellier in 2005 to set up a novel research team devoted to studying the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis regulation with the support of the "ATIP" starting grant from the CNRS. Her current research interests are related to the regulation of apoptosis by the ubiquitin-proteasome system.