Prof. Marianne Abi Fadel Receives New Distinctions in France

Awarded the Philippe Kfouri Prize by the National Academy of Medicine in December 2025 and named “Godmother of the 2025-2026 cohort of the InnoCARE Master’s program, Innovation for cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory diseases,” at the University of Nantes in July 2026

The National Academy of Medicine in France awarded the Philippe Kfouri Prize to Prof. Marianne Abi Fadel, Director of ETLAM and Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at USJ, conferring her the title of laureate of the National Academy of Medicine.

This distinction was awarded to her for her research conducted in France and Lebanon on lipid diseases and their cardiovascular complications. Her research at INSERM, Necker Hospital, and the USJ Faculty of Pharmacy led, in 2003, to the discovery of the involvement of the PCSK9 gene in familial hypercholesterolemia, which resulted in new highly effective treatments for reducing blood cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Her work has continued ever since, through the genetic study of lipid diseases in Lebanon and France, and through collaborations between the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Therapies, which she heads at USJ, and INSERM at Necker Hospital, Bichat Hospital, and currently, the UMRS 1166 ICAN at Sorbonne University.

This prize was awarded to her on December 16, 2025, in Paris, during a ceremony at the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, in the presence of Prof. Jean-Noël Fiessinger, President of the National Academy of Medicine, Prof. Christian Boitard, Perpetual Secretary, and Prof. Jean-Marc Ayoubi, as well as several members of the National Academy of Medicine. Also present were Prof. Salim Daccache, SJ, then Rector of USJ, Mr. Albert Kfouri, Dr. Pierre Anhouri, representing the Lebanese Minister of Public Health, as well as the Dean of the USJ Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Elie Nemer. The prize is named after Dr. Philippe Kfouri, one of the first Lebanese physicians-researchers who arrived in France in 1915 at the age of 21 and became the inventor of the anti-tubercular stamp, crucial in the fight against tuberculosis. During this ceremony, more than thirty researchers, scientists and doctors who have advanced medical, biological and pharmaceutical sciences were awarded various prizes by the Academy of Medicine, in recognition of their work and their impact in the various medical fields.

Recently, Prof. Marianne Abi Fadel was designated as godmother of the 2025-2026 cohort of the InnoCARE Master’s program at the University of Nantes, a Master’s degree in Innovation for Cardiovascular, Metabolic, and Respiratory Diseases. Marianne Abi Fadel was the guest of the “Summer School InnoCARE” which took place on July 2 and 3, 2026 at the Institut du thorax of the University of Nantes. She presented her research work alongside members of her team. Also invited were Carine Ayoub, senior lecturer at the USJ Faculty of Pharmacy and Gaëlle Merheb, PhD candidate in co-supervision between the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Therapies (LBTM) at the USJ Faculty of Pharmacy and INSERM1148, LVTS, in Paris. The exchange with Master’s students and PhD candidates as well as researchers was extremely rich, strengthening scientific and academic ties between France and Lebanon.

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