Romeo Cecchelli

Prof. Romeo Cecchelli graduated as a physiologist and holds a PhD in Physiology and a Doctorat es sciences in Biochemistry from the University of Lille.

He soon became interested in the transport of drugs across the blood-brain barrier. In the early 90’s, he set up, at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, an in vitro blood-brain barrier model, consisting of a co-culture of brain capillary endothelial cells and glial cells. The model has shown a high correlation between in vitro and in vivo permeability analysis of a wide range of molecules. In 1997, he was appointed as full Professor of Cell Biology at the Université d’Artois, Faculté des Sciences Jean Perrin in Lens (France).

In 2001, he founded a spinoff of his laboratory (Cellial Technologies) which is specialized in vitro studies for drug brain penetration and toxicity studies at the level of the central nervous system. He is still scientific advisor of the company. The current research of his laboratory focuses on three axis: cell-cell interactions at the neurovascular unit, neurovascular protection during ischemica and implication of the BBB in Alzheimer’s disease.

Since 2005, he is first vice-president of the University in charge of the research