Dr. Billaud received her PhD from the Université de Bordeaux in France where her doctoral research was focused on intercellular communication, reactive oxygen species, and nitric oxide signaling, and how they regulate vascular tone in the pulmonary circulation. Dr. Billaud further worked as a post-doctoral fellow and an Instructor of Research at the University of Virginia, where her project was to identify the role of a newly discovered protein (pannexins) in the adrenergic-mediated regulation of vascular tone and blood pressure.