Monique Adolphe

French scientist and researcher (1932–2022)

Monique Adolphe (born July 23, 1932) was a French scientist and pharmacist.[1][2][3] She was one of the first people to figure out how to use cell culture methods for pharmacotoxicology.[3] Pharmacotoxicology is the testing of drugs to find out if they are toxic and what their effects can be. A cell culture is a group of cells under controlled growth. She was also a pioneer of pharmacotoxicology using in vitro techniques.[2] In vitro means in glass, or in test tubes. She helped figure out how to test drugs that could be toxic on cell cultures instead of on a human or an animal.[1][3] She was the president of the EPHE Cellular Pharmacology Laboratory.[1] She was the first woman to hold this position.[1] She founded the Society of Cellular Pharmacotoxicology.[1][3] She was the president of it for 10 years.[1][3] She was an officer in the Order of the Legion of Honor and a Commander in the National Order of Merit in France.[1][3] She was also a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and the Royal Academy of Spain.[1]

Early life

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She was born in Paris, France, on July 23, 1932. Her father was a pharmacist.[1]

Career

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She started her career as an intern at a hospital in Paris.[1][3] She got a doctorate in cell biology sciences.[1][3] She became director of studies at the EPHE Cellular Pharmacology Laboratory in 1974.[1][3] She became president of the EPHE in 1990.[1] She was the first woman to be in this position.[1] She was also the director of the cellular pharmacology laboratory, a laboratory that the EPHE created for her.[1][3] Monique Adolphe was one of the pioneers of using cell cultures to test drug toxicity.[1][2][3] A human cell culture is a group of human cells under controlled growth, not attached to a human body. With the use of human cell cultures, pharmacists can test possibly harmful drugs on cell cultures instead of on humans. She founded the Society of Cellular Pharmacotoxicology.[1][3] She was president of it for 10 years.[1][3] She was a member of the European Society of Tissue Culture.[1] She then became the president of it from 1985 to 1987.[1] She represented France at the ECVAM (European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods) from 1992 to 1997.[1] She co-founded the French Society of Cellular Pharmacotoxicology.[2] She chaired the National Academy of Pharmacy in 2009. She was the first woman to hold this position since 1803.[1][3] She was a member of the National Academy of Medicine.[1][3] She became a full member in 2001, also becoming the first female pharmacist in the company.[1][3]

Adolphe died in Paris, France on June 27, 2022.[1][3]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 "Monique Adolphe | Dictionnaire prosopographique de l'EPHE". prosopo.ephe.psl.eu. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Andrew Worth, Michael Balls, Robert Combes. The History of Alternative Test Methods in Toxicology. (2018). United Kingdom: Academic Press. P.41
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 "Décès de Monique Adolphe | École Pratique des Hautes Études". www.ephe.psl.eu (in French). Retrieved 2025-04-21.