Nadège Nziza, finalist in “My Thesis in 180 Seconds”
A resident of Montpellier by adoption, Nadège Nziza is a doctoral student in physiopathology at the University of Montpellier. Meet this passionate and fascinating young woman, national finalist in the 2018 "My Thesis in 180 Seconds" competition.
"The aim of my thesis is as simple as a game of Cluedo: I have to find out which cell destroys which joint with which weapon!" explains Nadège NZIZA cheerfully. Comparing her very serious thesis on juvenile arthritis to a board game was a bold move. It was a bold move that won over the national jury of "My Thesis in 180 Seconds" 2018—which met on April 6 in Paris for the semi-finals—and earned this sparkling young woman a place in the finals of the prestigious thesis presentation tournament on Wednesday, June 13. The tournament is open to doctoral students from 20 French-speaking countries.
From Lulumbashi (DRC) to the doctoral school in Montpellier
"I have been intrigued by how the human body works since I was very young. That's precisely what led me to study animal biology first, then molecular and cellular biochemistry," explains Nadège NZIZA.Born in Lulumbashi, Congo, to Rwandan parents, the young woman, then barely of legal age, arrived in Europe in 2009 to continue her studies in Namur. "The culture shock was immense. At the time, I had lost all my bearings!"recalls the now 26-year-old, with emotion. After earning a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree with honors, Nadège NZIZA arrived in Montpellier as an intern under the supervision of Edouard Tuaillon, a lecturer at the University of Montpellier. "Those three months of working on the hepatitis C virus allowed me to fully indulge my passion for immunology," explains Nadège, who, during the following summer vacation, flew to Kigali, Rwanda, to do a practical internship in the field at a research center. For two months, the young woman devoted herself body and soul to improving the diagnosis of hepatitis B and C and, above all, malaria, the leading cause of death in her home country."It was at that precise moment that I realized my need to work closely with patients and my attraction to clinical work, far removed from fundamental research,"explains Nadège NZIZA, who, in the wake of this experience, enrolled inthe UMdoctoral school.
Juvenile arthritis
Two years later, Nadège completed her research project on juvenile arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes growth delays and malformations, atUnit 1183-INSERM (Stem Cells, Cellular Plasticity, Regenerative Medicine, and Immunotherapies). "My goal today is to improve techniques for diagnosing joint inflammation in young patients. This will enable us to offer them the most appropriate treatment for their condition in the future," she explains.
Nadège NZIZA already has plenty of plans for the future: she wants to spend a year or two doing postdoctoral research in the United States or, perhaps, Canada, before returning to her home country to work in immunology. "Rwanda has all the infrastructure needed to conduct clinical trials and develop large-scale research projects. The only things missing are state-of-the-art equipment and researchers and practitioners specializing in the field," explains the young woman, who, through the development of Franco-Rwandan research programs, already dreams of eradicating malaria in the not-too-distant future. Malaria is a disease that requires considerable care and whose spread in Rwanda still seems out of control, mainly due to local climatic conditions.
My thesis in 180 seconds (MT180)
Organized each year by the CNRS in partnership with university presidents, "My Thesis in 180 Seconds" invites doctoral students to present their research topic in French and in simple terms to a diverse audience of non-specialists. Each doctoral student has three minutes to give a clear, concise, and convincing presentation on their research project. This must be done with the support of a single slide! This competition is inspired by Three Minute Thesis (3MT®), designed at the University of Queensland in Australia. The concept was adopted in 2012 in Quebec by the Association francophone pour le savoir (Acfas), which wanted to extend it to 20 French-speaking countries.