photographist

“I had the chance of beginning my scientific life at the age of 21 in the department of Biochemistry at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay. I was eventually appointed Assistant Professor at Paris University and worked in the laboratory of Prof. Jacques Monod at the Pasteur Institute, where I obtained my PhD (D.Sc). I did two years of post-doctoral studies, first at the Necker Hospital in Paris, then at the National Institute for Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, USA. I came back to Necker Hospital where I founded a Molecular Biology laboratory. I was asked to do the same a few years later at the National Center for Blood Transfusion, Paris. The aim there was to study the genes that encode the various blood group antigens, which we were the first ones to identify and clone. While continuing to teach at Paris University as a Professor in Biochemistry, I eventually decided to work on a new subject still poorly understood at the time: the Down Syndrome..

I have been working on mouse models of Down Syndrome (DS) since 1990. DS does not result from the alteration of a specific gene, but from the presence of three copies of multiple, normal genes, hence the name trisomy 21. The only risk factor identified the world over is the advanced age of the mother at the time of pregnancy, but why there is no separation of the two copies of chromosome 21 at the time of fertilization remains unknown. Great progress has been made in the identification of the genes the overexpression of which results in intellectual disabilities in the newborn. This should hopefully allow establishing early pharmaceutical treatments that will control and even prevent mental handicap. In 1990, I created the French Association for Research on DS (Association Française pour la Recherche sur la Trisomie 21, AFRT) and in 2005 we chose March 21 as the date of the yearly Down syndrome World Day (Journée Mondiale de la Trisomie 21).”

Jacqueline London
Professor, University Paris Diderot, BFA - CNRS

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