Full Professor UCL
Hon. FNRS Research Director
MS Pharm 1990, MS Biomed Sci 1992, PhD 1995, 'Agreg Ens Sup' 2005
PhD in Molecular Pharmacology, UCL, Brussels (1990-95)
Post-doctoral fellow and Research Associate at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston (1996-98)
FNRS carreer at UCL, Brussels : 'Chargé de Recherches' (1998-2000) , 'Chercheur Qualifié' (1999-2005), 'Maître de recherche' (2005-2008), 'Directeur de recherche' (2009-2011).
Olivier Feron is honorary FRS-FNRS Research Director and Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and at the Faculty of Medicine of UCL where he teaches pharmacology, physiology and pathology. After a PhD in Molecular Pharmacolgy, he was trained at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital à Boston in Boston, USA first as post-doctoral fellow and then as Instructor in Medicine. Back in belgium, he established his own laboratory progressively shifting the focus of his research from cardiovascular diseases to oncology. Cross-fertilization between these fields was instrumental in the identification by his lab of caveolae as unique signaling platforms involved in the regulation of endothelial NO synthase activity, angiogenesis and lipoprotein metabolism. This mixed expertise was also key to demonstrate the potential of a variety of vasomodulatory compounds to improve the efficacy of chemo- and radiotherapy.
Among the most recent discoveries of O. Feron's research group are the link between cycling hypoxia and tumor progression, the role of lactate as a key actor of tumor metabolic symbiosis and the metabolic shift from glucose toward glutamine and fatty acids in response to tumor microenvironment acidosis.
Olivier Feron has obtained several awards including the prix Galien en 2000, the prix Eugène De Somer in 2008, the prix Lambertine Lacroix in 2010, the prix Pfizer in 2011 and the prix Tytgat in 2017. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal Frontiers in Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs and member of the Royal Academy of Medicine since 2009.