Wolf H. Fridman - Biography#

Professor Wolf H. Fridman is Professor Emeritus of Immunology at the Paris Descartes University Medical School in Paris, France. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Paris. After 10 years in the laboratory headed by Jean Dausset, he created his own laboratory at the Cancer Research Centre in Villejuif in 1976, then moved to Institut Curie in 1983 and is presently Director of the Cordeliers Research Centre. He is also Head of the Immunology Laboratory of European Hospital Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Dr Fridman’s research interests have been focused around the role of the immune system in controlling human tumors and the biological functions of receptors for IgG antibodies. He, and his team, identified the protein references which trigger the biological functions of the receptors for IgG. In particular, he identified and named the ITIM motif, an inhibitory motif common to many receptors.

His main contributions in cancer immunology stand up to 1969 when he published, with François Kourilsky, the first demonstration of an immune response of the patient to his own cancer, in acute leukemia. He, then, focused on the analysis of the tumor microenvironment with the demonstration of the beneficial effect of a Th1 oriented immune response to control clinical outcome in cervical cancer. Since 2005, the studies of Jérôme Galon, Franck Pagès and Wolf H. Fridman have changed the paradigm of host/cancer interactions by demonstrating that the ‘immune contexture”, taking in account the functionality, the location and the density of the immune infiltrate in colorectal tumors, is the major prognostic factor for human cancers. These findings really open the way for immune-based tools for efficient prognosis and therapy of cancers. His papers has been cited over 10.000 times and his i. Factor is 55. He is a world leader in the field of human tumor immunology as assessed by its recurrent invitations as Symposium Speaker to AACR, Keystone, FASEB and other top international meetings.

Activities and positions:

• 1982-1986 Member of the CNRS specialized scientific commission (CSS 25)
• 1991-1995 President of the INSERM specialized scientific commission (CSS 06)
• 1995-1998 President of the Scientific Commission of Institut Curie (Section Médicale et Hospitalière)
• 1996-2002 President of the Scientific Council of ARC
• 1998-2002 Vice-president of the Scientific Council at University Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris 6
• 1998-2002 Member of the Scientific Council of AP/HP
• 2000-2002 Member of the Scientific Council of GenHomme Program
• 2003-2006 Scientific Director of ARC
• 2003- Vice Dean, in charge of Research at the Medical School Paris Descartes
• 2005- Member of the Scientific Council of the Medical School Paris Descartes
• 2008-2010 : Regular reviewer for the European Research Council (ERC) :
• Evaluator for the FP7-HEALTH-2010-single-stage call for proposals
• Evaluator for CANCER call on “Structuring translational cancer research between cancer research centres”
• Panel member for the ERC Advanced Grant 2010 evaluation