About
Plume Scientific Communication Services is a Société par Actions Simplifiée (SAS) based near Toulouse in the south-west of France. Plume is wholly owned and operated by Carol Featherstone, PhD and Etienne Joly, MD.
Carol Featherstone was born and educated in the UK. She received her PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK) where she worked on smooth muscle biochemistry, then went on to do postdoctoral research in cell biology at the EMBL in Heidelberg (D), at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore (MD, USA) and at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (CA, USA). She has first-author papers in the Journal of Cell Biology and Nature. Carol moved from the bench to science publishing when she became the founding editor of Trends in Cell Biology. Later, she worked as a freelance science writer, publishing in Science, The Lancet, New Scientist etc., and at the Wellcome–CRC Institute in Cambridge as an Information Specialist. Upon moving to France in 2000, Carol produced an online magazine, The ELSO Gazette, for the newly established European Life Scientist Organisation, and she became involved in science policy and career development with ELSO. Since 2010, she has been working freelance as an editor, science writer and trainer of early career scientists; she was a regular consultant for PLOS Biology from 2008–2021, providing editing services. She also works with Life Science Editors. Carol is fluent in French.
​
​
Etienne Joly was born in the USA and educated in France. He trained as a medical doctor in Paris then carried out postdoctoral research in virology and immunology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (CA, USA). He started his own research team at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge (UK) and moved to the IPBS–Toulouse in 20?? Etienne has eclectic research experience in genetics, immunology, virology, trogocytosis, membrane biophysics and, most recently, Covid-19. He has published over 60 first-author and senior-author research papers in journals including Science, Neuron, Journal of Virology, Nucleic Acids Research, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nature Communications. He serves on the editorial boards of PLOS One, Biology Direct and F1000Research and has reviewed for numerous other journals. He continues his research at the IPBS–Toulouse. Etienne is bilingual in French and English.
​