A huge congratulations to Guillaume Canaud on being awarded the 2026 Mendel Medal, an award recognising his significant work on rare diseases linked to mutations in the PIK3CA gene and on the development of innovative treatments for patients. 

Professor Guillaume Canaud heads the Translational Medicine and Targeted Therapies team at INEM and works in collaboration with Hopital Necker – Enfants Malades on genetic disorders linked to overgrowth syndromes and vascular abnormalities.

Following significant research into, in particular, CLOVES syndrome, one of the most common PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS); Guillaume Canaud and his colleagues have identified alpelisib, a breast cancer treatment, as a potential treatment for PIK3CA-related conditions, which cause complex and even severe malformations. Approved by the FDA in the United States in 2022, the use of alpelisib for treatment of severe forms of PROS was authorised by the European Medicines Agency in 2026. 

This award highlights the exemplary work carried out by Guillaume Canaud in understanding the biological mechanisms of PROS and identifying alpelisib as a treatment.

Crédit Image : François Christophe