André Lwoff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
André Lwoff

André Michel Lwoff (born May 8, 1902 in Ainay-le-Château , † September 30, 1994 in Paris ) was a French microbiologist , molecular biologist and virologist . In 1965, together with François Jacob and Jacques Monod, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries in the field of the genetic control of the synthesis of enzymes and viruses ”.

Life

Lwoff was the son of an artist and a psychiatrist who both had Russian origins. He attended the Lycée Voltaire in Pais and studied natural sciences and medicine at the Medical Faculty of the Sorbonne from 1920 . From 1921 he also did research at the marine research station Roscoff, where his collaboration with Edouard Chatton began. He mainly dealt with ciliate animals (nutrition, taxonomy, etc.). At the age of 19 he joined the Pasteur Institute . In 1927 he received his doctorate in medicine and in 1932 in biology (Recherche biochimique sur la nutrition des protozoaires). In 1936 he went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg with Otto Meyerhof on a Rockefeller grant and in 1937 to David Keilin at Cambridge University . From 1929 he was laboratory manager at the Pasteur Institute. From 1959 to 1968 he was professor of microbiology at the Sorbonne.

He dealt with viruses ( bacteriophages , poliovirus ) and bacteria. He received the Nobel Prize for explaining the lysogeny of bacteriophages: they incorporate their DNA into bacteria, but reproduction can only be triggered much later, for example by UV light (as Lwoff showed). In 1962 he led a Taxonomy of Viruses a.

From 1950 Francois Jacob was in his laboratory.

In 1955, Lwoff was elected to the National Academy of Sciences , 1958 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1967 to the American Philosophical Society and 1976 to the Académie des Sciences . In 1960 he received the Leeuwenhoek Medal of the Royal Society , the Keilin Medal of the British Biochemical Society and the Prix ​​Charles-Léopold Mayer . In 1970 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina and he was an external member of the Royal Society. In 1947 he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

1962 to 1970 Lwoff was the first president of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies , whose Lwoff Award is named after him.

The bacterium Acinetobacter lwoffii (genus Acinetobacter ) also bears his name .

He was an opponent of the death penalty and supported the defense (through Robert Badinter ) of Patrick Henry in 1977, a murderer who at the time was still facing the death penalty.

He worked a lot with his wife Marguerite (1905–1979), who was also a biologist.

Fonts

  • The concept of virus. In: J. Gen. Microbiol. Volume 17, 1957, pp. 239-253.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter L. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 16, 2020 (French).
  2. ↑ Biography at the Pasteur Institute, see web links

Web links

Commons : André Michel Lwoff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Lwoff, André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lwoff, André-Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French microbiologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Ainay-le-Château , Allier department, France
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1994
Place of death Paris