Catherine Léon is Research Director at UMR_S1255 Inserm Unit, EFS Grand-Est (Blood Center), University of Strasbourg, France. She received a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from the Ecole supérieure de biotechnologie de Strasbourg. She obtained her master's degree in science and a Ph.D. from the University of Strasbourg, studying adhesion molecules in development.
After entering INSERM Institute, she studied hemostasis and thrombosis, focusing on the role of ADP in pathophysiological platelet functions. In the past 15 years, she became interested in pathologies leading to platelet production defects, and subsequently in the normal and pathological mechanisms of platelet formation in the bone marrow. She highlighted the essential role of non-muscle myosin IIA in the process of platelet formation. This was the first step that directed her research towards the study of the role of the environment and the importance of mechanical cues. Her research programme encompasses the use of different in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro models to discover the mechanoreceptors and mechanotransduction pathways involved in platelet formation under physiological and pathological conditions.
