FOCIS is proud to announce the newest addition to the FOCIS Centers of Excellence (FCE) community: the Marseille Immunopole Profiling Platform (MI-PP), bi-located at the Immunology Center of Marseille-Luminy (CIML) and at the Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM) in La Timone campus in Marseille, France.
It is one of the leading international groups on innate immunity and more specifically on the dissection of the role of a cell population, the innate lymphoid cells. The laboratory has been involved in their discovery and has the expertise to extract and purify ILC from tissue and tumors, determine ILC distribution within human PBMC, cell sorting, and transcriptomic analysis.
CIML is a Research Institute affiliated to CNRS, INSERM and Aix-Marseille University (AMU). CIML includes 18 research teams.
The FCE will be jointly led by Eric Vivier, DVM, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Innate Pharma and a Professor of Immunology at Aix-Marseille University and at the Public Hospital of Marseille, and Frederic Vély, PharmD, PhD. Professor Vivier has published over 350 scientific articles and is on the list of the most cited researchers. Dr. Vély is an Associate Professor of Immunology at Aix-Marseille University and at the Public Hospital of Marseille.
Eric Vivier, DVM, PhD 
Frederic Vély, PharmD, PhD
The MI-PP has developed a recognized expertise in the analysis of immune response in patients in multiple clinical conditions, including genetic and acquired immunodeficiencies, inflammatory syndromes, and cancers. It has also developed several tools to deeply analyze innate lymphoid cell subsets in humans.
Professor Vivier’s research team is also running an immunoprofiling platform, directed by Dr. Vély, in charge of the diagnostic activity of the National Reference Center for Immune Deficiencies at AP-HM (https://www.ceredih.fr/home).
The FCE will be dedicated to translational research and clinical trials to strengthen the interdisciplinary nature of its research, develop the international aspects of its education programs, elicit more outreach toward the lay community and, together, augment international visibility.
The FCE application was supported with a recommendation from Olivier Boyer, MD, PhD, the FOCIS FCE Multinational Chair. Dr. Boyer noted that Dr. Vivier is “a world-renowned immunologist, conducting his research in one of the most prominent French centers of immunology. During our recent discussions about FCEs, he has expressed his eagerness to contribute to FOCIS development, and I have no doubt he will be, together with the proposed deputy director, Frédéric Vély, an active participant who will contribute to the growth of the FCEs and their influence worldwide.”
The FOCIS Centers of Excellence (FCE) aim is to accelerate multidisciplinary scientific and clinical innovation and education worldwide. A FOCIS Center of Excellence is identified as a multidisciplinary group based in an academic institution and encompassing three or more areas of research relevant to clinical immunology. View the full roster of FOCIS Centers of Excellence (FCE) locations here. The FCE application process is available on the FOCIS website here.
FOCIS appreciates the dedication and commitment its FCE directors exemplify and the many contributions they have made to furthering the better understanding and treatment of immune-based diseases that benefit patients worldwide.