Anne Dejean-Assémat

Anne Dejean-Assémat is a French molecular biologist working on the mechanisms leading to the development of human cancers. As Research Director at INSERM and Professor at the Pasteur Institute, she heads the Laboratory of Nuclear Organization and Oncogenesis at the Pasteur Institute and the INSERM Unit 993 'Molecular and Cellular Biology of Tumors'.

Biography 

Anne Dejean-Assémat was educated at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, graduating with a Master of Science degree in Genetics in 1981. She then earned her PhD in Virology at the Pasteur Institute in 1988. Her thisis topic was the role of integrated hepatitis B virus sequences in the development of  hepatocellular carcinoma. Since 2003, she has been leading the Nuclear Organization and Oncogenesis Unit at the Pasteur Institute. Anne Dejean-Assémat has held several scientific administration positions at the Scientific Council and as a president of the Genetics, Development and Cancer committee at INSERM (2008–2012) and in a study section at the French Ministry of Research and Technology. In 2004, she became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. She received the Prize L’Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science, 2010, the Grand Prix INSERM, 2014 and the Sjöberg Prize, 2018.

Scientific contributions 
A molecular biologist, Anne Dejean-Assémat investigates the mechanisms, at the genetic, epigenetic and cellular levels, responsible for the development of human cancers. Anne Dejean-Assémat and her collaborators have made important advances in understanding the origin of certain cancers and have opened up unique perspectives for new differentiation and targeted therapy leads. 

She discovered mutations in the genes encoding the receptors for retinoic acid, the active derivative of vitamin A, in liver cancer and some types of leukemia and dissected the molecular mechanisms underlying their role in oncogenesis and treatment sensitivity. Her main contributions are the first demonstration of a direct role for the hepatitis B virus in human liver cancer as an insertional mutagen, the discovery of a gene encoding a retinoic acid receptor at a hepatitis B virus integration site and the molecular cloning of the PML-RAR oncoprotein responsible for acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Focusing on the celullar defects characterizing this type of leukemia, she then discovered the implication of a novel cellular organelle, the PML Nuclear Body, and clarified the mechanisms underlying the high efficiency of acute promyelocytic leukemia treatment by retinoic acid and arsenic    which leeds to cure in more than 95% of the patients. Together, her studies led to the identification of the genetic and cellular mechanisms responsible for a human leukemia and to the understanding of the unique efficacy of this anti-tumor therapy targeted on the genetic defect. Her most recent work aims at eludicating the role of the post-translational modification by the SUMO protein in the epigenetic  control of gene expression.

Manipulation of experimental data supporting research articles published by Anne Dejean-Assémat has been reported in several cases.

Society membership 
Member of the French Academy of Science,  2004
Member of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences,  2011

Awards and honors
 Prize Jeanne Loubaresse, Curie Institute,  1996
 Prize Hamdam for Medical Research Excellence,  2000
Prize Léopold Griffuel, ARC,  2010
Prize L’Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science,  2010
Prize Duquesne, Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer,  2014
Grand Prix INSERM,  2014
Officier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur,  2016
Sjöberg Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,  2018

References

Category:French women biologists
Category:French oncologists
Category:1957 births
Category:Living people
Category:French women scientists
Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Category:L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates
Category:20th-century biologists
Category:21st-century biologists
Category:20th-century French scientists
Category:21st-century French scientists
Category:20th-century women scientists
Category:21st-century women scientists