Over the last several years, C. Martinat has focused most of her efforts on the use of human pluripotent stem cells for pathological modeling of neuromuscular diseases.
In particular, her group demonstrated that human embryonic stem cells carrying the causal mutation for Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 (DM1) can be used to identify new therapeutic strategies.
Since 2015, Cécile Martinat is the head of INSERM UEVE UMR 861 Unit/ IStem. This laboratory is dedicated to the development of new therapeutic strategies for rare diseases using human pluripotent stem cells.
Since 2017, she is also the president of the French society on Stem Cell Research (FSSCR).