Michel Lazdunski

Michel Lazdunski (born April 11, 1938 in Marseille ) is a French biochemist, known for research on ion channels with applications in drug development.

Life

Lazdunski studied chemical engineering with a degree in 1959 and received his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1962 and in biochemistry in 1964. From 1962 he was a scientist at the CNRS at the Institute of Biochemistry in Marseille. In 1965 he became a professor at the University of Marseille and later professor of biochemistry at the University of Nice (Sophia Antipolis). After its establishment from 1967 to 1973, he headed a research group in the field of physical chemistry of proteins and enzyme research at the Center for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Marseille. In 1973 he founded the CNRS Center for Biochemistry in Nice, which he headed until 1989. In 1989 he founded the CNRS Institute for Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology (Institut de pharmacologie moléculaire et cellulaire, IPMC) at the University of Nice, which he has headed ever since. He has also been Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Institut universitaire de France since 1991 .

After his beginnings in research on protein structure, protein-protein interaction and enzyme catalysis, for which he received the CNRS silver medal, he turned to research into ion channels and the mechanisms of action of drugs that act on the ion channels. For example, it comes the effect of calcium channel antagonists (calcium channel blockers), which are used as high blood pressure medications, and that of sulfonylureas , a diabetes showed drug which Lazdunski and colleagues that they to certain potassium ion channels in pancreatic cells act, the insulin secreting . He also found that ion channels play a role in narcotic drugs such as ether and chloroform . His group discovered a new class of potassium channels in certain nerve cells (important for motor activity and memory) that regulate the resting potential of these cells and that these anesthetics act on. The long-unknown mechanism of action of these oldest known narcotics could thus be elucidated: they stimulate the ion channels, which leads to hyperpolarization and thus to a slowdown in communication via the nerve cells. These ion channels are also the target of some natural molecules that protect the neurons, for example in the event of insufficient blood flow, which resulted in starting points for the development of new drugs, for example for glaucoma and ischemia in the brain and spinal cord.

They also discovered a new class of potassium channels in the heart that are important for maintaining a normal heart rhythm. The same type of potassium channels were also found in the inner ear, so defects in these channels due to mutations can lead to both cardiac arrhythmias and deafness. Ladzunski and his group also identified ion channels that play a role in sensory perception (such as the sense of touch) and pain (ion channels in nociceptors that respond to acidity). His group also found ion channels in the kidney that are important for maintaining the sodium balance (with applications to high blood pressure) and ion channels for chloride transport, which are disrupted in cystic fibrosis , and they found a molecule that re-establishes these channels activated.

In 1976 he received the silver medal and in 2000 the gold medal of the CNRS and in 1983 the Prix ​​Charles-Léopold Mayer . In 1984 he received the International Society for Cardiac Research Prize, the Athéna Foundation and Institut de France Prize in 1991, the Bristol-Myers Foundation Neuroscience Award with his research group in 1991 and the French Academy of Sciences Grand Prix for medical research. In 2011 he received the Ernst Jung Gold Medal . He is a member of the Académie des Sciences (1991), the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine (1991) and the Academia Europaea (1989). He is a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

Web links

• CNRS gold medal for Ladzunski