Théo LEBERRE will defend his PhD on Nov. 12th, 2025 at 1:30PM
Place : Amphitheatre 1bis in the W1 building of École Centrale de Lyon in Ecully
Jury :
Rapporteurs :
Rodney O’connor, Professeur aux Mines de Saint-Etienne
Olivier Français, Professeur à l’ESIEE Paris
Examinateurs :
Muriel Golzio, DR CNRS, IPBS Toulouse
Clair Poignard, DR INIRIA, Université de Rennes
Invités:
Frédéric Prat, PU-PH, AP-HP, Hôpital Beaujon
Daminer Voyer, enseignant chercheur à l’EIGSI La Rochelle
Encadrement :
Marie Frénéa-Robin, Professeure des Universités, laboratoire Ampère, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1: directrice de thèse
Julien Marchalot, Maître de conférences, laboratoire Ampère, INSA Lyon: co-encadrant
Guilhem Rival, Maître de conférences, laboratoire LGEF, INSA Lyon: co-encadrant
Abstract :
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. Often detected late, inoperable and resistant to conventional therapies such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, it often leads to therapeutic dead ends. Its resistance stems largely from its dense, fibrous and immunosuppressive tumour environment. This thesis is part of a project aimed at developing a combination therapy using physical stimuli to target this tumour environment and improve the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapies. The stimulus studied in this work is electroporation, which allows both temporary permeabilisation of cell membranes through the effect of intense pulsed electric fields and remodelling of the extracellular matrix. Electroporation is a technique that has already been proven in veterinary and human oncology and is used in several types of treatment. For example, it can be used to potentiate chemotherapeutic molecules, such as bleomycin, or on its own as a method of athermal ablation. The approach chosen for this new procedure is echoendoscopy, in order to offer a minimally invasive operation.
The first part of my manuscript focuses on the design of a new tool, compatible with echoendoscopes used in clinical settings, that exposes tumours located in the pancreas to an intense pulsed electric field. In a second step, the possibility of using this device to monitor the application of the treatment in situ via impedance measurements is studied and tested on plant, animal and human tissue ex vivo. A numerical model is then developed to describe the envisaged electroporation procedures, consisting of several treatments applied successively between electrodes organised in a network. The final part of the work is devoted to the in vitro study of the electroporation.
Keywords: Medical device, pancreatic cancer, electroporation, numerical modeling, impedance spectroscopy, microsystems