Xavier Morelli will supervise DC7 (PPI-biased small-molecule discovery for kinase regulatory interfaces).
Xavier Morelli trained in Structural Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Paris XI (France). During his PhD (1996–1999), he combined molecular modelling and biological NMR to investigate protein–protein interactions (PPIs), before joining Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow (BIDMC, 1999–2002). In 2002, he was recruited by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he is currently Director of Research.
In 2010, he established his research group at the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (CRCM). He currently co-leads the Integrated Structural and Chemical Biology (iSCB) team, which combines chemoinformatics, structural biology, biophysics, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, high-throughput screening and preclinical studies to identify, characterize and target PPIs in oncology and immunotherapy. He is also Director of HiTS, a nationally accredited High-Throughput Screening platform.
Xavier Morelli has held numerous scientific advisory positions, including membership of a national committee of Fondation ARC, Chair of the Scientific Committee of Canceropôle PACA, Chair of the Scientific Committee of “Département des Alpes Maritimes”, and membership of the GIS IBiSA Scientific Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Canceropôle PACA, the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the CNRS National Committee (CoNRS, Section 22) and the Scientific Council of Eurobiomed.
Alongside his academic activities, he is strongly involved in innovation and technology transfer. He heads the Technology Transfer and Valorization Department at Institut Paoli-Calmettes (IPC) and oversees its non-clinical industrial partnerships. He is also a CNRS Innovation Ambassador and technology-transfer representative within PUI Provence. Finally, he is co-founder of ORTHOS Therapeutics, a biotechnology start-up developing a novel therapeutic approach for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia based on research originating from his laboratory.
