| Jean-François Bach | |
| Birth Date: | 8 June 1940 |
| Birth Place: | Yvré-l'Évêque, Sarthe, France |
| Nationality: | French |
| Occupation: | Medical professor, biologist and immunologist |
| Fields: | Immunology |
Jean-François Bach (8 June 1940 – 12 December 2023) was a French medical professor, biologist and immunologist. He was Secrétaire perpétuel honoraire of the Académie des sciences. Bach died on 12 December 2023, at the age of 83.[1]
Bach was the grandson of a professor of pharmacy and a former director of the ENS de Saint-Cloud and son of a professor of medicine in paediatrics. He was preparing for the Polytechnique exam in the preparatory class of the Louis-le-Grand high school. After a few months of special mathematics class he decided to change his orientation by choosing medicine.
Bach was Jean Hamburger's student at Necker Hospital. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1969 and in science in 1970. His science thesis gives rise to three articles in Nature.[2]
Correspondent in 1977, he was elected in 1985 as a member of the Académie des sciences, where he was one of the two Secrétaires perpétuels from 2006 to 2015.[3] He was also Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris-Descartes.
Bach was Director of Inserm Unit 25 (Renal Immunopathology) and CNRS Laboratory 122 (Allograft Immunology), while also directing the Claude Bernard Association's centre on autoimmune diseases.
Among its other activities and functions:
Bach published alone or in collaboration, nearly 700 articles as well as several scientific books, including his Traité d'immunologie (six French editions and translated into 3 languages).[4]
His personal work concerned more particularly the study of subpopulations of T lymphocytes related to thymus activity; the characterization of thymic hormones and in particular thymulin, which he synthesized; the action of immunosuppressants (cyclosporin, antilymphocyte sera, monoclonal antibodies against Tlymphocytes).[5] [6]
Bach was interested in the mechanisms and treatments of autoimmune diseases and more specifically insulin-dependent diabetes. He played a decisive role in the implementation of treatments for this disease with ciclosporin and, more recently, with anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies. Finally, he showed that the decrease in the frequency of infections in developed countries explained the increase in the incidence of autoimmune diseases (hygienist theory).
Among other awards and honours:
Bach was also: