Dominique Stéhelin
Dominique Stehelin (born September 4, 1943 in Thoisy la Berchère , Département Côte-d'Or ; † April 5, 2019 ) was a French molecular biologist who researched tumor viruses and oncogenes .
Stehelin studied biochemistry (licentiate 1966) and received his doctorate in 1968 under Henri Duranton at the University of Strasbourg (on the proteins of the capsule of the tobacco mosaic virus). The second part of his doctorate (Thèse d'Etat) took place in 1972. From 1969 he carried out research for the CNRS , from 1976 as Chargé de Recherche and from 1978 as Research Director. First he conducted research under Marc Girard in André Lwoff's laboratory at the Cancer Research Center in Villejuif and from 1972 to 1975 with John Michael Bishop in San Francisco. From 1976 to 1978 he was group leader at Jean Samaille in Lille and then head of the research unit molecular oncology at the Pasteur Institute in Lille. In 1984 he became a professor there. He was involved in founding a biology institute in Lille and was its first director from 1996 to 1999.
Stehelin was a pioneer in tumor virology. In 1976, in Michael Bishop's laboratory, he showed the presence of DNA from the Rous sarcoma virus in non-infected cells (src gene). This demonstrated the existence of proto-oncogenes , which function normally in cells and are modified to oncogenes by the virus. The work carried out with Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus was a reason for the award of the Nobel Prize to Varmus and Bishop in 1989.
In Lille, Stehelin then researched and discovered other oncogenes (such as myb, myc, erbA, erbB mil / raf) and characterized their function. It turned out that one oncogene can be involved in different types of cancer and also that different oncogenes can produce very similar types of cancer.
He investigated the parvovirus H1, which selectively multiplies in tumor cells and can destroy them, which makes it interesting as a potential therapeutic agent against cancer.
In 1982 he received the Léopold Griffuel Prize and in 1987 the Louis Jeantet Prize . In 1987 he became a knight and an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1996 and a knight of the Ordre national du mérite in 1982 . In 1975 he received the Prix Joannides of the Academie des Sciences and in 1986 the silver medal of the CNRS . In 1990 he became a corresponding member of the Academie des Sciences and in 1983 EMBO member.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pr Dominique Stehelin (1943-2019). Un brillant pionnier de la recherche des gènes du cancer accessed on April 13, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stéhelin, Dominique |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stehelin, Dominique |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French molecular biologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 4, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Thoisy la Berchère |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th April 2019 |