Bastien Tirtiaux wins Best Oral Communication award at CARD 2025 in Poitiers

The CARD (Congrès Annuel de Recherche Dermatologique) is a major scientific event for the dermatology research community in France and Belgium, bringing together leading experts in cutaneous biology and skin diseases. The 2025 edition took place in Poitiers on June 26-27 (www.atoutcom.com/card/).

As in previous years, NARILIS researchers actively contributed to the event, notably the team led by Prof. Yves Poumay. Renowned for their pioneering work in developing in vitro skin models, their research focuses on reproducing key features of epidermal diseases in 3D cultures to improve our understanding of disease pathogenesis and screen potential novel therapeutic or preventive treatments. 

During this year’s congress, NARILIS PhD student Bastien Tirtiaux presented his research on Malassezia, which are commensal yeasts that colonize sebum-rich areas of the human skin. While usually harmless, these yeasts have been linked to various skin disorders. Malassezia switch from their commensal round or oval shape to filamentous hyphae that invade the epidermis, causing barrier disruption and triggering inflammation. To explore this commensal-to-pathogen shift, Bastien developed an innovative Malassezia infection model on reconstructed human epidermis (Bastien et al., 2025). This work was carried out in collaboration with Prof. Giuseppe Ianiri from the University of Molise in Italy. 

His talk at CARD 2025, entitled « Characterization of epidermal infection by the yeast Malassezia furfur”, earned him the Best Oral Communication award, recognizing the high quality and scientific impact of his doctoral research. 

Congratulations to Bastien for this well-deserved prize!