Alain Prochiantz Explained

Alain Prochiantz (born 17 December 1948 in Paris) is a neurobiology researcher and professor at the Collège de France, of which he became director from 2015 to 2019.

Biography

Alain Prochiantz is a former student of the École normale supérieure (1969). After a science thesis obtained in 1976 in the field of genetic translation, he turned towards neurobiology by working with Jacques Glowinski and became a research fellow (1978-1981) and then research director (1982-2007) at the CNRS.[1] He was appointed head of the Biology Department at the École normale supérieure, which he kept until 2006, when he became the holder of the "Morphogenetic Processes" chair at the Collège de France in 2007.

He has also been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 18 November 2003[2] and chairman of the Research Committee of the Foundation for Medical Research (FRM). In 2011, he received the Inserm Grand Prix de l'Inserm[3] [4] for all his work.

Alain Prochiantz is also the author of numerous scientific articles and books on the brain; he participates in scientific theatre productions with his friend Jean-François Peyret. Together, they are collaborating on the writing of the play Ex vivo / In vitro, premiered at the Théâtre de la Colline in November 2011.

Alain Prochiantz served as director of the Collège de France from 2015 to 2019.

Scientific contributions

Alain Prochiantz has been working since the early 1980s in the field of molecular neurobiology, particularly on the processes of morphogenesis and nerve cell differentiation. He did his first major work at the Collège de France with Jacques Glowinski on the development and in vitro maturation of dopaminergic neurons in the mesencephalon.[5] [6] [7]

His laboratory having moved to the École normale supérieure, he then became interested in the molecular signals responsible for certain neuronal morphogenesis processes and, in 1991, highlighted in particular the role of homeoboxes of certain transcription factors[8] [9] (but also of different extracellular matrix proteins such as tenascin,[10] glycoaminoglycans[11] ...) in these phenomena.

As was then fully accepted in the scientific community, he proposes that cascades of regulation of homeotic genes (of the Hox family) are potentially involved in many stages of neuronal differentiation, neurite growth, neuronal polarity... However, going against a certain number of knowledge, or even dogmas in the field of molecular biology, he reports that domains of transcription factors, or even whole proteins such as Hox5, can be internalized in a cell[12] [13] and therefore suggests the possible secretion of a given transcription factor by a nerve cell A that can be internalized by a neighbouring cell B and have a biological effect on it. To clearly demonstrate this, he and his team are interested in the homeoprotein Engrailed of the Hox gene family involved in the morphogenesis of brain structures and demonstrate that it also has an intracellular location in secretion vesicles.[14]

The first key publication supporting this theory was in 1998 with the in vitro demonstration that a large proportion of the nuclear transcription factor Engrailed is effectively secreted in the extracellular medium by Cos cells and recaptured by cocultured neurons acting as a potential intercellular peptide messenger.[15] These articles were published in good biology journals but not in the forefront because the data were relatively contested by the scientific community.[16] These discoveries will take some time to be recognized.[17] His team then demonstrated the involvement of Engrailed-1/2 proteins in the development and survival of dopaminergic neurons by using heterozygous mouse models (En1+/-) for them[18] and by proposing a mechanism of action on the transcriptional activation of the Ndufs1 and Ndufs3 subunits of complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain.[19]

Alain Prochiantz continues his work in evolutionary developmental genetics and directs his research towards the physiological aspects of his fundamental molecular discoveries, particularly for the understanding of neuronal plasticity and axonal guidance processes.

Awards and honours

Books

Notes and References

  1. http://histoire.inserm.fr/les-femmes-et-les-hommes/alain-prochiantz/%28page%29/2 Biographie d'Alain Prochiantz
  2. http://www.academie-sciences.fr/academie/membre/Prochiantz_Alain.htm Alain Prochiantz
  3. http://www.inserm.fr/actualites/rubriques/actualites-evenements/prix-inserm-2011 Lauréats du Grand Prix de la recherche médical 2011
  4. https://www.franceinter.fr/emission-la-tete-au-carre-alain-prochiantz-grand-prix-inserm Alain Prochiantz, grand prix INSERM
  5. Effect of striatal cells on in vitro maturation of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurones grown in serum-free conditions. par di Porzio U, Daguet MC, Glowinski J, Prochiantz A. dans Nature du 27 novembre 1980;288(5789):370-3.
  6. Specific stimulation of in vitro maturation of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurones by striatal membranes. par Prochiantz A, Daguet MC, Herbet A, Glowinski J. dans Nature du 15 octobre 1981;293(5833):570-2.
  7. Glial heterogeneity may define the three-dimensional shape of mouse mesencephalic dopaminergic neurones. par Denis-Donini S, Glowinski J, Prochiantz A. dans Nature du 16 février 1984;307(5952):641-3.
  8. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=1672046 Antennapedia homeobox peptide regulates neural morphogenesis.
  9. http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/reprint/120/2/485 Antennapedia homeobox peptide enhances growth and branching of embryonic chicken motoneurons in vitro.
  10. http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/reprint/113/5/1159 J1/tenascin in substrate-bound and soluble form displays contrary effects on neurite outgrowth.
  11. http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/114/1/17 In vitro control of neuronal polarity by glycosaminoglycans.
  12. http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/271/30/18188 Cell internalization of the third helix of the Antennapedia homeodomain is receptor-independent.
  13. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T9H-3VXJ934-C&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=81f51975b68c7b5401ad933978a0b645 Transcription factor hoxa-5 is taken up by cells in culture and conveyed to their nuclei.
  14. http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/124/10/1865 Association of Engrailed homeoproteins with vesicles presenting caveolae-like properties.
  15. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-4C59FVW-8&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=bcb1f6f3f351a41ac4db7648c18f23d8 Identification of a signal sequence necessary for the unconventional secretion of Engrailed homeoprotein.
  16. Ariane Poulantzas, entretien avec Alain Prochiantz, « Les bactéries pensent aussi », La Vie des idées, 5 juin 2009
  17. Can transcription factors function as cell-cell signalling molecules? par Prochiantz A, Joliot A. dans Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2003 Oct;4(10):814-9.
  18. Progressive Loss of Dopaminergic Neurons in the Ventral Midbrain of Adult Mice Heterozygote for Engrailed1 par Laure Sonnier, Gwenaëlle Le Pen, Andreas Hartmann, Jean-Charles Bizot, Fabrice Trovero, Marie-Odile Krebs, et Alain Prochiantz, dans J. Neurosci., 31 January 2007, 27(5): 1063-1071.
  19. Engrailed protects mouse midbrain dopaminergic neurons against mitochondrial complex I insults par Daniel Alvarez-Fischer, Julia Fuchs, François Castagner, Olivier Stettler, Olivia Massiani-Beaudoin, Kenneth L Moya, Colette Bouillot, Wolfgang H Oertel, Anne Lombès, Wolfgang Faigle, Rajiv L Joshi, Andreas Hartmann et Alain Prochiantz dans Nature Neuroscience, 4 septembre 2011, 14:1260–1266.
  20. Web site: Allianz s'engage depuis 30 ans dans la recherche médicale . 2019-12-09 . 2016-08-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160817121646/https://www.allianz.fr/v_1391122800000/qui-est-allianz/allianz-s-engage/dans-la-societe/la-recherche-medicale/media/a_PlaqALZPrixRecherche2013.pdf . dead .
  21. Web site: Pourquoi l'homme n'est-il pas un animal comme un autre ?. France Culture. fr. 30 May 2019.

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