Pierre Chambon
Dr. Pierre Chambon is Honorary Professor at the College de France (Paris), and Emeritus Professor at the Faculté de Médecine of the Strasbourg University. He was the Founder and former Director of the IGBMC, and also the Founder and former Director of the Institut Clinique de la Souris (ICS/MCI), in Strasbourg.
Dr. Pierre Chambon is a world expert in the fields of gene structure, and transcriptional control of gene expression. During the last 25 years his studies on the structure and function of nuclear receptors has changed our concept of signal transduction and endocrinology. By cloning the estrogen and progesterone receptors, and discovering the retinoic acid receptor family, he markedly contributed to the discovery of the superfamily of nuclear receptors and to the elucidation of their universal mechanism of action that links transcription, physiology and pathology. Through extensive site-directed mutagenesis and genetic studies in the mouse, Pierre Chambon has unveiled the paramount importance of nuclear receptor signaling in embryonic development and homeostasis at the adult stage. The discoveries of Pierre Chambon have revolutionized the fields of development, endocrinology and metabolism, and their disorders, pointing to new tactics for drug discovery, and finding important applications in biotechnology and modern medicine.
These scientific achievements are logically inscribed in an uninterrupted series of discoveries made by Pierre Chambon over the last 45 years in the field of transcriptional control of gene expression in higher eukaryotes: discovery of PolyADPribose (1963), discovery of multiple RNA polymerases differently sensitive to a-amanitin (1969), contribution to elucidation of chromatin structure: the Nucleosome (1974), discovery of animal split genes (1977), discovery of enhancer elements (1981), discovery of multiple promoter elements and their cognate factors (1980-1993).
Pierre Chambon has received numerous international awards, including the 2004 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for the discovery of the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors and the elucidation of a unifying mechanism that regulates embryonic development and diverse metabolic pathways. He is a member of the French Académie des Sciences, and also a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Pierre Chambon serves on a number of editorial boards, including Cell, and Molecular Cell. Pierre Chambon is author of more than 900 publications. He has been ranked fourth among most prominent life scientists for the 1983-2002 period.