French biologist Francois Gros, who, among others, co-discovered the RNA messenger, died Friday at the age of 95, the French Academy of Sciences reported on Sunday.
Gross’ contribution to deciphering genetic function was “crucial” in the molecular revolution of biology, the academy asserted in a biography she published on the world, paving the way, for example, for the technology to be used in some anti-inflammatory vaccines.COVID-19.
François Gross began his career in 1945 as a Fellow of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he became Director of Research (1962-1968) and member of the Board of Directors (1976). He also served as Director General of the Pasteur Institute between 1976 and 1981.
The Parisian biologist was initially interested in the function and regulation of genes, and in 1961 he first revealed ribonucleic acids (RNA) known as “messengers,” which transmit information from chromosomes to the protein-forming system.
In collaboration with Jacques Monod and François Jacob, Gross’ work made it possible, according to the academy, to determine how the genetic functioning of bacteria is regulated at the molecular level under the influence of “external stimuli”.
Monod, Jacob and Andre Löw won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
The epidemic has brought its discoveries back to the fore: vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna have been developed based on messenger RNA, a technology based on messenger ribonucleic acids, which allows injecting instructions or molecules that prompt cells to produce certain proteins in the body..
