Download Session 5: New frontiers The innate immunity, insects to the man

Session 5: New frontiers
The innate immunity, insects to the man: reflections on the basic research
Jules Hoffmann, Professor of biology to the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of
Strasbourg, emeritus research Director at the CNRS, Nobel Prize winner 2011
Insects, which make up the vast majority of animal species, are blessed with powerful antimicrobial
defenses. Our laboratory, which was initially located at the Strasbourg Zoology Institute, and then at
the IBMC (Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology), has been trying for a number of years to decipher
these defense mechanisms. Our research has been, from the outset, purely guided by curiosity. We
thought we would uncover totally different responses from those of mammals. As our work
progressed, we came to understand that quite to the contrary, insects and mammals share a
powerful innate immunity (excluding lymphocytes and adaptive immunity). The relative simplicity of
the Drosophila genetics then enabled the laboratory to make rapid advances which provided a fertile
basis for research in mammalian and human models. This presentation will briefly set out the key
stages in this research work. It will go on to argue that pure and simple basic research based on the
curiosity of researchers, without any hypothesized potential applications, should be supported in the
future, as they were in the past, both within our country and internationally.
Inserm
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Republic of France
Tel. +33 (0)1 44 23 60 00 Fax +33 (0)1 44 23 68 56
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Pr. Jules Hoffmann
CURRENT FUNCTIONS
 Professor of Biology at the Institute for Advanced Science of the University of Strasbourg
 Emeritus research Director at CNRS
AREAS OF RESEARCH
An internationally renowned biologist, Pr. Jules Hoffmann has devoted his interests to the study of
the mechanisms underlying the potent innate immunity defenses of insects. Born in Luxembourg in
1941, he studied at the university studies of Strasbourg where he got a Ph.D. in experimental biology.
He joined the CNRS in 1964 and created the CNRS “Immune response and development in insects”
laboratory that he has directed until 2006. This laboratory was initially at the Institute of Zoology and
moved to the CNRS Institute of molecular and cellular biology when Jules Hoffmann was appointed
Director of that Institute in 1994 (up to 2006). The numerous discoveries of Jules Hoffmann and his
associates in this research field led to a new vision on the defence mechanisms that organisms, from
the most primitive to humans, oppose to infectious agents.
Pr. Jules Hoffmann has also been President of the Académie française des sciences in 2007 and 2008
and started the company EntoMed (1999-2007) which developed new antibiotics from antimicrobial
peptides of insects.
HONOURS AND AWARDS
Pr. Jules Hoffmann is winner of numerous prestigious awards among which
 Nobel Prize in Medecine and Physiology (2011)
 Keio Prize in Medecine (2011)
 Gairdner Prize in medical sciences (2011)
 Shaw Prize in life sciences and Medicine (2011)
 CNRS Gold medal (2011)
 Rosenstiel Prize in immunity (2010)
 Jules Hoffmann is a member of the Académie française, the National Academy of Sciences
(US), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German National Academy Leopoldina
and the Russian Academy of Sciences
PUBLICATIONS
Pr. Jules Hoffmann is author of more than 250 scientific papers.
Republic of France
Inserm
101, rue de Tolbiac 75654 Paris Cedex 13
Tél. +33 (0)1 44 23 60 00 Fax +33 (0)1 44 23 68 56
Page | 1