Le mercredi 19 avril 2023, Monsieur Matthieu SCHOUMACHER, titulaire d'un master en sciences chimiques à finalité approfondie et d'un certificat de formation à la recherche en sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques, présentera l'examen en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en Sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques sous la direction de Monsieur Pascal DE TULLIO et de Monsieur Bernard PIROTTE.

Cette épreuve consistera en la défense publique d'une thèse intitulée :

"New translational metabolomics exploration of Age-related macular degeneration: improving risk assessment and «real-life» patient’s follow-up"

Le Jury sera composé de :

Michel FREDERICH (Président), Vincent LAMBERT (Secrétaire), Pascal DE TULLIO, Bernadette GOVAERTS (UCLouvain), Jean-Charles MARTIN (Université de Marseille), Agnès NOËL, Bernatd PIROTTE.

Résumé de la thèse

In this work an NMR-based metabolomics approach was applied to the study of Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in way to explore several challenges linked to patient’s management: (1) early diagnostic; (2) patient’s stratification; and (3) evaluation of disease progression and patient’s responses. To achieve these goals, blood derived samples coming from two different cohorts were analyzed. The first cohort consisted of plasma samples collected from 471 people with no sign of AMD and followed during a period of 7.8 years. During this period blood samples and clinical data regarding their AMD incidence were recorded. NMR-based metabolomics and lipidomics analyses aimed to highlight spectral signatures of AMD incidence, representing a unique opportunity to improve AMD risk assessment for elderly population. For the second cohort, a follow-up of 32 advanced AMD patients under treatment over a period of two years (269 time points) was made. At each time point, clinical data regarding nAMD patients’ status was collected and used for biomarker discovery. NMR metabolomics approach was used to correlate changes among the metabolome with AMD patients’ evolution. The main objectives were to provide new tools able to improve patients’ management and identify key metabolites linked to disease evolution.