Jean Weissenbach
Director, Centre National de Séquençage
Paris, France

Born in 1946, he joined CNRS in 1979 where he has been a Director of Research since 1987. He has directed several laboratories associated with CNRS as well as a research unit at the Pasteur Institute. He finished his doctoral thesis work on the sequencing and coding properties of transfer RNAs at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg in 1977. His postdoctoral research from 1977 to 1981 on the cloning of genes for human interferons was performed at the Weizmann Institute and then the Pasteur Institute. This led to his work in human molecular genetics, his research interest from 1982 until 2003. At the beginning of the 1990s Jean Weissenbach and his group at the Généthon laboratory developed the first high-resolution human genetic map, which consists of more than 5000 highly polymorphic genetic markers. Since 1997, Jean Weissenbach has directed the French national DNA sequencing center-Genoscope, which has participated in the sequencing of large genomes (human genome [chromosome 14], Arabidopsis, Anopheles, Tetraodon, Rice, Paramecium, etc.) and genomes of microorganisms. His current activities as director of the Metabolic Genomics Unit UMR 8030 include genomics of environmental microorganisms and their metabolism, and the identification of new enzymatic activities. Jean Weissenbach is a member of numerous professional societies including EMBO, HUGO and the French Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the editorial board of international genetic journals.

He has been the recipient of numerous prizes in France and elsewhere ("Gairdner Prize, Canada", "Prince of Asturias Award, Spain"). He received the Gold Medal of the CNRS in 2008.

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