We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Danièle Noël, Editorial Board Member of Bioengineering (ISSN: 2306-5354), to discuss the recent research trends in the field and her personal career development. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Dr. Danièle Noël is currently Research Director at Inserm at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Biotherapies (IRMB) in Montpellier. She received her Ph.D. in health biology from Bordeaux University in 1992. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Montpellier in the field of recombinant retrovirology and gene therapy (1992–1999). She then moved to IRMB to work in cell therapy and became a professor in 2011. She is currently leading the group, “Organoids, Mesenchymal stromal cells and Extracellular vesicles for osteoarticular diseases therapies”, which includes 11 staff members. Her main interests are the biology of mesenchymal stromal cells and their application in the treatment of osteoarticular diseases and systemic sclerosis.

Her main focuses are:

• The identification of molecular mechanisms regulating the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stromal cells and the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs);
• The optimization of cells and EV-based therapeutic approaches for regenerative medicine in rheumatic and autoimmune diseases;
• The optimization of cartilage tissue engineering approaches and joint organoid generation using a combination of molecular factors, scaffolds and 3D bioprinting.

She has authored more than 180 publications (h-index: 64; citations: 16310) and is currently a partner in three European programs.

The following is a short interview with Dr. Danièle Noël:

1. What are your research areas?
Mesenchymal stromal cells; extracellular vesicles; osteo-articular diseases; and therapies.

2. What are the latest developments in your research field?
Extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stromal cells for the development of new acellular therapies in various therapeutic applications.

3. Can you briefly share your career development story? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?
I have held an academic position at the French National Institute for Health since 2007, where I integrated a laboratory as a senior researcher and, since 2011, I have become a research director leading a research group of more than 12 people.

4. Do you have any valuable suggestions you would like to share with young students and early career researchers?
Keep motivated to develop your own research projects and lead a research group.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in publishing?
I think it is a great opportunity to share your research results to a very large community. I totally agree with Open Access for research.

We are thankful for Dr. Noël's time and support of Bioengineering.