Cécile Galle, MD-PhD, Scientific Project and Communication Manager, was recently awarded the 2007 Sanofi-Aventis Prize in Thrombosis, Haemostasis, Vascular Biology, and Experimental Cardiology, under the patronage of the Belgian Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, for her research work entitled "Inflammatory and helper T lymphocyte responses in human abdominal aortic aneurysm". In this work, supported in part by the Fonds Erasme pour la Recherche Médicale and the F.R.S-FNRS, Cécile Galle provided evidence that activation of infiltrating CD4⁺ T lymphocytes secreting inflammatory cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a common and potentially life threatening complication of atherosclerosis. Part of her research studies and related PhD thesis dissertation was published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, the official journal of the Society for Vascular Surgery; Clinical Experimental Immunology, the official journal of the British Society for Immunology dedicated to translational immunology; and Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, one of the five official journals of the American Heart Association.