The policy of site is fundamental in our strategy

Maria Sklodowska is the entry in the legend without meeting with Pierre Curie The reputation of the first female Nobel Prize has somewhat eclipsed the merits of his companion of life and work. But at the time of the centenary of the disappearance of the great scientist, this 19 April, it is legitimate for him to pay tribute. The story is that, without its intervention, Marie would have not been associated to the Nobel Prize in physics which was awarded to their, as well as Henri Becquerel in 1903 for the discovery of natural radioactivity.

Its recognition, Marie Curie expressed by taking the torch after the accidental death of her husband, in the hope to be able to build a worthy of his laboratory. Hope will be filled on the spot where they worked together. On the montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, two not their last residence, the Pantheon, stands the Institute proudly displays their name. Worn by the political will of Professor Claude Huriet in his head since January 2002, it is now at the forefront of cancer research and is part of a dynamic of development nurtured by a program of investment of 100 million euros by 2010. After a world-renowned career and a long parliamentary journey, the Senator to the indistinguishable name of bioethics laws says have found "new youth" in fulfilling this mission. "It was not won in advance, because I arrived in a somewhat gloomy climate, but I have immediately taken by the strong commitment in this century-old House," he recalls.

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The daffodils of solidarity

Drawing from his love for nature the courage to continue alone, Marie Curie, who was beaten to preserve a small garden under the Windows of his laboratory, would have been glad to the Daffodil became the universal symbol of the fight against cancer. "Gardens for life, a Daffodil for Curie" is one of the lighthouses organized by the Institute, for three years, to mobilize the solidarity of the public. This year, the collection of daffodils 60,000, which flourished in the floor of the Pantheon from 22 to 26 March, to collect 80,000 euros. This envelope will complement the budget of 350,000 euros for the purchase of a microscope of new generation able to observe cells in 3D for better targeting and understand the disorders of the appearance of cancers, particularly in the case of melanoma and childhood leukemia. Sports registry, the French rugby Federation has partnered with the Institut Curie, last month, meeting France-England, to launch a campaign for donations for childhood cancer research. Many events that build stone by stone notoriety while stimulating the generosity of the French. The financial structure of this private foundation recognized of public utility since 1921, is a mosaic of perennial public resources and own revenue (respectively 77 and 23 in the 2006 budget). With some 150,000 active donors and 70 estates conducted each year to its benefit, donations and bequests made a leap of 42 to EUR 20.4 million in 2005.

The two pillars of the Curie Institute activities are not based on the same level on public funding. Medicare covers 91 of the cost of operation of the hospital, while research enjoys the support of the Department, Inserm and CNRS to 50 of its expenditures and investments.

Yet thousand times opens, the history of the Curie couple is never really highlighted the real impact of their findings on the current anticancer research. Or highlighted the crucial role of Dr. Claudius Regaud, who then headed the laboratory pastor, dedicated to the study of biological and medical radiation effects. Or even the avant-garde spirit of Marie, which was the inspiration of the model still very current on which built the Institute in 1909: the continuum between research and innovative care. "Exceptional intuition collaboration, complementarity and interdisciplinarity between clinicians and researchers made a model for faster transfer the advancement of knowledge in the patient's bedside, said President Claude Huriet.". Today, my greatest satisfaction is to feel to develop between the researchers and caregivers a real osmosis.

Objective: healing 100 of patients

Palpable complicity between Professor Daniel Louvard, Director of research of the Curie Institute since 1993, and Professor Pierre Bey, who took in hand the destiny of the hospital in 2002, reflects the reality of this symbiosis. "Master asset of the Institute is to bring together on the same geographical site two different communities, of roughly equivalent size, complementary and synergistic activities between them", says Daniel Louvard. To operate "the wealth of Curia", he initiated the creation of a Department of transfer, as between these two worlds staggered rhythms and often different language, to translate advances research in medical practices. Launched in 2003 and funded with the own funds of the Foundation, this Department displays an ambitious goal: to advance more quickly the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers to achieve one day recover 100 of patients, compared to 50 today, all combined indications. Once again, this transfer activity is based on the story, as Marie Curie and Claudius Regaud were the first to introduce the radiation

ionizing Therapeutics.

While the France is struggling to retain its most talented researchers, the Institut Curie is for example in terms of attractiveness and reactivity. "Over the past ten years, our research activities have been profoundly renovated and our teams have greatly rejuvenated." "The average age is now thirty-three years for scientists, because we have implemented the necessary means to recruit quickly and return of young researchers parties abroad," explains Daniel Louvard.

Hypno-analgesia and relaxation therapy

"Victim" of its excellent reputation, the Institut Curie hospital lacks infrastructure able to accommodate all patients wishing to benefit from its care. And this is indeed not his vocation. Example: the breast cancer, about half of its activity. Exemple on the 42,000 cases diagnosed each year at the national level, including 10,000 in the Ile-de-France, only 2,000 can there be supported. "In order to work in optimal conditions, we must absolutely regulate demand, even if it is difficult psychologically to try to convince a patient will be as well treated in a hospital near his home", explains Pierre Bey. This radiation therapist spoke knowingly as he led for ten years the Regional Centre for combating cancer Lorraine Alexis-Vautrin, Nancy. "The Curie Institute is the only place that could make me move because it is a charge of history where it is woven a genuine link between the clinic and research," he acknowledges. "Our challenge is to support some sick 6,400 a year, focusing on those to which we are only able to provide a therapeutic solution specific or a priori more efficient, such as patients with tumor of the eye."

To facilitate these interactions between research and clinical practice, a "protected time" program was launched in 2003 to encourage médico-soignantes teams to focus on a research project. "It is absolutely crucial to allow doctors, but nurses and manipulators in radiotherapy of time for this purpose also," insists Pierre Bey. The budget needed to pay for replacement staff, valued at EUR 1.2 million for 2006, could not be financed without donations and bequests. "It is rewarding for the whole industry and, when the registry, must be managed marketplace cravings so that projects can benefit collectively in the nursing sector," said Roselyne Vasseur, Director of the Institut Curie care. Nursing research projects include the example of hypno-analgesia in the fight against the pain, the treatment of fatigue in patients under chemotherapy or the relaxation therapy applied in the preparation of the patient before surgery. This original approach should create an emulation in a profession that lip patients, but affected head-on by a shortage due to the often painful life conditions. In his time, Marie Curie had taken the initiative, during the second world war, to organize training of Radiologists for nurses and had obtained 18 equipped cars of equipment, called the "small Curia", to go on the front.

Two major projects

The future of the Curie Institute built around two major projects. The first is the creation of a centre of international research in developmental biology, which will increase its firepower of 20. Unique in Europe, this tool will allow it to exploit all the available genetic data to better control the process of alteration of genes that causes the cancer. It wasn't until January 2008 to cross the threshold of this building brand-new, which will be erected on the last parcel of constructible land of the site of the montagne Sainte-Geneviève. Archaeological excavations on their end, the first Pickaxe blow will be given on July 1. It is still drawing from its own resources that the Curie Institute could start this project, at a cost estimated at 30 million, pending the release of public funding.

The second site of scale is the complete renovation of the centre of Proton Therapy Institute Curie in Orsay, dating from the 1950s, which was also implemented by Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. The 2009 horizon, the objective is to double the number of patients receiving this particular form of radiation, more precise, so less aggressive for the healthy tissue, in dealing with term 650 people with rare tumours of the eye and the base of the skull.

Today, the immediate concern of the leaders of the Curie Institute is the lack of surface they suffer on the montagne Sainte-Geneviève. "The policy of site is fundamental in our strategy." "We currently reflect our critical size and opportunities to increase our means to do not limit our ambitions", says Anne Bellod, Secretary General. From a symbolic point of view, it would be unthinkable that this Foundation is forced out of the fief of the Curia.

Furthermore, to help those for whom the remission is a reality to resume a normal life, the Curie Institute satisfied company Swiss Life to launch on the market in January, an insurance product "borrower" to facilitate their access to housing loans. The commitment of researchers and caregivers, highlights of the combative spirit that embodies the iconic Foundation, tennis champion Amélie Mauresmo sponsor once again number one world, and with their own determination, these former cancer patients won the game of their lives.