Alain Israël, born on 13 June 1949 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, is a French researcher, director of research emeritus at the CNRS since 2014, and a member of the French Academy of sciences.
Biography After studying at the University of Paris VII, he completed a thesis in virology at the University of Lyon in 1980, followed by 3 years of postdoctoral training at Stanford University, with Stanley Cohen. In 1983 he joined the laboratory directed by Philippe Kourilsky at the Pasteur Institute. In 1992 he took over the management of the Molecular Signaling and Cellular Activation Unit at the Pasteur Institute.
Scientific work The main objective of the research carried out by Israël and his team for more than twenty years has been cell signaling mechanisms in mammalian cells, focusing essentially on two signalling pathways: the NF-κB pathway and the Notch pathway.
Among his main discoveries are:
Cloning of the first NF-κB subunit in 1990Kieran M., Blank V., Logeat F., Vandekerckhove J., Lottspeich F, Le Bail O., Urban M.B., Kourilsky, P., Baeuerle P.A. & Israel A., « The DNA-binding subunit of NF-kappa B is identical to factor KBF1 and homologous to the rel oncogene product. », Cell, (1990) 62, p. 1007-1018 Cloning of NEMO, the main regulating subunit of the NF-κB trackYamaoka, S., Courtois, C., Bessia, C., T. Whiteside, S.T., Weil, R., Agou, F., Kirk, H.E., Kay, R.J. & Israel, A., « Complementation cloning of NEMO, a component of the IkB Kinase Complex essential for NF-kB activation », Cell, (1998), 93, p. 1231-1240 Identification of the first genetic disease related to a defect in the NF-κB pathway (collaborativelyDöffinger R, Smahi A, Bessia C, Geissmann F, Feinberg J, Durandy A, Bodemer C, Kenwrick S, Dupuis-Girod S, Blanche S, Wood P, Rabia Sh, Headon Dj, Overbeek Pa, Le Deist F, Holland Sm, Belani K, Kumararatne Ds, Fischer A, Shapiro R, Conley Me, Reimund E, Kalhoff H, Abinun M, Munnich A, Israël A, Courtois G, Casanova Jl., « X-linked anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia with immunodeficiency is caused by impaired NF-kappaB signaling. », Nat Genet., (2001), 27(3), p. 277-85 Identification of the first genetic disease related to a defect in the LUBAC ubiquitination complex (collaboratively)Boisson B, Laplantine E, Prando C, Giliani S, Israelsson E, Xu Z, Abhyankar A, Israël L, Trevejo-Nunez G, Bogunovic D, Cepika AM, MacDuff D, Chrabieh M, Hubeau M, Bajolle F, Debré M, Mazzolari E, Vairo D, Agou F, Virgin HW, Bossuyt X, Rambaud C, Facchetti F, Bonnet D, Quartier P, Fournet JC, Pascual V, Chaussabel D, Notarangelo LD, Puel A, Israël A, Casanova JL, Picard C., « Immunodeficiency, autoinflammation and amylopectinosis in humans with inherited HOIL-1 and LUBAC deficiency », Nat Immunol., (2012), 13(12), p. 1178-86 Characterization of the Notch pathway activation mode: 1) successive cleavages of the Notch receptorLogeat, F., Bessia, C., Brou, C., Lebail, O., Jarriault, S., Seidah, N.G & Israël, « A. The Notch1 receptor is constitutively cleaved by a furin-like convertase », Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, (1998), 95, p. 8108-8112Brou, C., Logeat, F., Gupta, N., Bessia, C., Lebail, O., Doedens, J.R., Cumano, A. Roux, P., Black, R. & Israël, A., « A novel proteolytic cleavage involved in Notch signaling : role of the disintegrin-metalloprotease TACE », Mol Cell, (2000), 5(2), p. 207-16 2) the cleaved receptor is transported into the nucleus where it directly co-activates its target genesJarriault, S., Brou, C., Logeat, F., Schroeter, E.H., Kopan, R. & Israël, « A. Signaling downstream of activated mammalian Notch », Nature, (1995) 377, p. 355-358
Professor Alain Israël is the author of more than 150 scientific publications in internationally renowned journals;
Main distinctions
Director of Scientific Evaluation at the Institut Pasteur in 2000. Member of EMBO since 2000. Member of Academia Europaea since 2000. Member of the French Academy of sciences in 2004 in the Molecular and Cellular Biology - Genomics section. Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2008. Member of the CNRS Scientific Council from 2010 to 2014.
References