Anne Dejean-Assémat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anne Dejean-Assémat
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 6 January 1957 Cholet, France
|
| Education | Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University |
| Employer | Pasteur Institute, INSERM |
| Known for | Human cancers, Molecular Biology |
| Awards | Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Grand Prix INSERM, Sjöberg Prize |
Anne Dejean-Assémat (born 6 January, 1957) is a French scientist who studies molecular biology. She works on understanding how human cancers develop. She is a professor at the Pasteur Institute and a research director at Inserm. She leads a special lab at the Pasteur Institute that focuses on how cells are organized and how cancer starts.
About Anne Dejean-Assémat
Anne Dejean-Assémat studied at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. She earned her Master of Science degree in Genetics in 1980. Later, she completed her PhD at the Pasteur Institute in 1988. During her PhD, she looked into how the hepatitis B virus might cause liver cancer.
In 2003, she became the head of a lab at the Pasteur Institute and Inserm. She is a member of important science groups like the EMBO and the French Academy of Sciences. She has received many awards for her work. These include the Prize L'Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science in 2010. She also received the Grand Prix Inserm in 2014 and the Sjöberg Prize in 2018.
What She Discovered About Cancer
Anne Dejean-Assémat is a molecular biologist who studies cancer. She has made many important discoveries about how nuclear receptors and human cancers work.
She found that genes for retinoic acid receptors can change in liver cancer. Retinoic acid is a form of vitamin A. She also found these changes in a rare type of leukemia, which is a blood cancer. Her work helped explain how this leukemia could be cured. This opened new ways to treat cancer using targeted therapies. These therapies aim at specific parts of cancer cells.
She first found a gene change in a liver tumor linked to the hepatitis B virus. She showed that this virus can change human genes. This can directly lead to liver cancer. This discovery helped her team find the RARb gene. They also found how cells respond to retinoic acid. With another scientist, Hugues de Thé, she found a protein called PML-RARa. This protein causes a type of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).
Her later work showed how retinoic acid and arsenic can cure APL. This treatment was first used in China. It is still one of the most effective targeted cancer therapies. She found that retinoic acid can fix problems in the leukemia cells. She also showed that a special part of the cell, called the PML Nuclear Body, is broken in these cells. Both retinoic acid and arsenic can fix this cell problem. She also showed that arsenic helps break down the cancer-causing protein.
Her lab also helped discover more about a process called SUMO. They found that SUMO plays a big role in how genes are controlled. It helps keep the immune system in check and helps cells keep their identity. Her work has opened new paths for regenerative medicine and cancer treatment. These new treatments could use medicines to change SUMO levels.
Awards and Memberships
Anne Dejean-Assémat has been part of many science advisory groups. She was on the Scientific Council for Inserm from 2008 to 2012.
She has received many awards for her important work:
- Mergier-Bourdeix Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1997)
- Rosen Prize from the Medical Research Foundation (1998)
- Mitjaville Prize from the National Academy of Medicine (1999)
- Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence - Therapy in Leukemia (2000)
- Gagna and Van Heck Prize (2003)
- Léopold Griffuel Prize from Association de recherche en cancérologie (ARC) (2010)
- Prize L'Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science (2010)
- Duquesne Prize from la Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer (2014)
- Grand Prix Inserm (2014)
- Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (2018)
She also received two special grants from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2011 and 2018. She was honored as an Officer in the Ordre national du Mérite in 2012. In 2016, she was made an Officer in the Légion d'honneur.
Anne Dejean-Assémat is a member of several important scientific organizations:
- European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) (1995)
- French Academy of Science (2004)
- Academia Europaea (2005)
- European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2011)
- the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020)
