Catherine Schuster is the deputy director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Liver Disease (Inserm U1110), and scientific referent of Inserm East region.

She undertook her PhD studies at the University of Strasbourg, France, that she completed in 1991. She obtained a tenured position as a research associate of Inserm in 1995. In 2000, she joined Dr. M.P Kieny’s team at the Inserm U544 in Strasbourg, France, to establish her own research group focusing on hepatitis C virus (HCV) translation and replication. She obtained a Young Scientist Award from the Fondation BNP-Paribas. Some of her achievements include determining the secondary structure of the 3’ minus strand end of the viral genome which is crucial for HCV replication and establishing a clear understanding of the interplay between all HCV non-structural proteins, the discovery of key host factors required for the HCV life cycle, and the demonstration of the role of apolipoprotein E in hepatitis C virus, entry, assembly and export.

In 2011, she became an Inserm research director and since 2013, she is the deputy head of the ITM. Furthermore, she endorsed the role of scientific delegate for the HCERES “High Council for the evaluation of Research and Higher Education” and was in charge of the sub-domain “Infection-Immunity-Microbiology” for 7 years. From 2018 to 2020, she became the national Coordinator of the Life Sciences and Environnement at HCERES, and supervised the evaluation of all research units involved in Life Sciences, Environnement and Health.

In 2013, she became deputy director, then director in 2018 of the Doctoral School “Sciences de la Vie et de la Santé, Strasbourg”, until 2024. She is a member of the EUROLIFE consortium. In 2020, she was nominated by the head of Inserm, Référent Scientifique Inserm, I-Site de Nancy et l’IdEx de Strasbourg.

In January 2024, Catherine Schuster received the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.