Hélène Puccio is the Team leader at Institut NeuroMyoGene (Lyon, France). She obtained her Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University (USA) in 1998 on the identification and characterization of a family of novel dystrophin-related and associated proteins, the dystrobrevins.
She then joined the group of Michel Koenig at the IGBMC (Strasbourg, France) to work on the molecular pathogenesis of Friedreich's ataxia (FA). In 2001, she was appointed as a research associate at Inserm—the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research—and has since been the principal investigator on the FA project. In 2008, she was promoted to Inserm Research Director. Her research interest lies in understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms implicated in recessive ataxias
linked to mitochondrial dysfunction. Her team has made significant contributions to advancing fundamental knowledge on Fe-S cluster and CoQ10 biosynthesis, the pathophysiological pathways involved in diseases, and developing novel therapeutic approaches. She has received several awards, including the
Prix de l’Académie Rhénane (2014), the Prix “La Recherche—La science en avance” (2015), and the Prix Antoine Lacassagne of the Collège de France (2016). She has published 61 papers with 4935 citations and an h-index of 38 (Scopus, 5 December 2023).
