On December 15, Prof. Michel Fardeau received the Grand Medal of the French National Academy of Medicine from Jean-François Allilaire, Assistant Secretary of the Academy. He was honoured for his outstanding career that has been entirely devoted to the biology and pathology of muscle. By creating an institute specific to muscle and its pathology at La Salpetriere, Michael Fardeau has given myology a fully-fledged specialty status.
During the awards ceremony, Prof. Fardeau paid tribute to those who, in his words, “made him”: Prof. Raymond Garcin, who welcomed him to his department at La Salpétrière in 1959 for his internship and Prof. René Couteaux, who taught him about tissue pathology. Among the many scientists that he rubbed shoulders with over the decades, the following in particular, have marked him: “John Walton was the first in Europe to convert his Neurology Department in Newcastle Upon Tyne into a Neuromuscular Diseases Research Centre; W. King Engel, my brother in arms, who invited me to join him at the NIH in Bethesda (…); and Ketty Schwartz, who brought the “heart” valence, to our group. ”
From the team to the Institute
In 1977, as a young Research Director, Prof. Fardeau became head of the “Biology and Neuromuscular Pathology” unit, which he directed until 1996. Initially a small team, four people established the first unit working specifically in the field of muscle diseases: the electron microscopy department at La Salpétrière. “Everyone that was a part of the CNRS team, then the INSERM Research Unit dedicated to muscle pathology. Some of them are here this morning, with Fernando Tomé: One of the characteristics of this group, that gets bigger each year, is that once you become a part of it, you never leave.” So the numbers increased gradually, to the point that the team moved from La Salpétrière to Fer à Moulin, then as things became even more important, it was necessary to build an institute to welcome the staff that undoubtedly, now exceeds several hundred: thus followed the birth of the Institute of Myology, of which Prof. Fardeau was Medical and Scientific Director until his retirement in 2006.
Very close to patients and their families
Michael Fardeau also dedicated his Medal “to everyone, children, adolescents or adults, who trusted me as patients, many of them have always remained close to me.” In 1978 Bernard Barataud contacted Michel Fardeau and François Gros of the Pasteur Institute to seek help and advice for a scientific council that he planned to create for the association that he was reviving. “As our replies were positive, a Scientific Council was soon to arise, as well as an adventure whose importance is known by all in this country today.”
Improving social care for disabled people
Hoping to make things happen in both the scientific and social domains, Michel Fardeau taught at the CNAM which created a chair of social science for him in 1987 “Social integration of disabled people” dedicated to all disabilities. During 10 years, in parallel to his scientific research, he adopted a more transversal approach to disability, as he had observed in other countries such as Quebec.
A recognised physician and researcher still in activity
Michael Fardeau is Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS and Honorary Professor at the CNAM. He has been rewarded with numerous awards and his work has been recognised by foreign scientific societies that have called upon him as an associate. He was a member of several academies, including the Academy of Sciences, as a correspondent, and was a member of the National Ethics Advisory Committee (1986-1990).
He is currently a member of the AFM’s Scientific Council and a volunteer consultant in Dr. Norma B. Romero’s Histopathology laboratory at the Institute of Myology.
