Laurence Lafanechère, CNRS Director of Research, develops chemical biology strategies to find new anticancer drugs targeting the cytoskeleton and its regulators. She has strong expertise in the microtubule field, especially in microtubule post-translational modifications and regulations, and co-manages a team focused on the study of cytoskeletal dynamics and nuclear functions at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (IAB) in Grenoble, France. She is currently the deputy director of IAB, an institute of international standing in basic and translational biomedical research As a pioneer in phenotypic screening, for ten years she has created and managed the Center for Bio-Active Molecule Screening, a high-throughput screening facility dedicated to cell-based assays. At the French National level, for several years she has managed a chemical screening network and is currently a member of the scientific board of the Chemobiology Research network. She has been part of several strong international collaborations and has been nominated extraordinary professor of Pretoria University, SA.