Jacob (Jacob), Franцїois

genus. June 17, 1920
French biologist Francois Jacob was born in Nancy, in the family of merchant Jacob Simon Jacob and Theresa (Frank). At the end of the local primary school, he enrolled in the Lycц?e Carnot in Paris. Dreaming of becoming a surgeon, F. After graduating from the Lyceum joined the University of Paris (Sorbonne), but in 1940. German army invaded France, and his education was interrupted. ZH. unable to leave the country, . joined in London by the movement of 'Free France', . participated in the battles of the Second World War as a medical officer under the command of General Paul Leclerc in North Africa, . and then in the 2 nd Armored Division of the United States in Normandy,
. In Africa and Normandy, he was badly injured hand prevented him from becoming a surgeon. ZH. was awarded the highest French military decoration, in t.ch. Military Cross and the Cross of Liberation.
After the war, F. returned to the Sorbonne and in 1947. received a medical degree. Continuing his studies, F. In 1950. began working as an assistant at the Pasteur Institute under the leadership of Andre Lviv. While Lvov studied lysogenic bacteria die when infected with bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacterial cells. Propagation of phages in the cell causes its lysis (disintegration) and the release of new phage particles. Lviv found that the bacteriophage initially exists in the bacterial cell in a non-infectious or latent phase, which he called the prophage. Study of lysogenic bacteria and prophages formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation Jean, which he defended in the University of Paris in 1954, received his doctorate. Over the next 10 years he studied the cellular genetic mechanisms in bacteria.
Genetics as a science originated in the XIX century. When Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of heredity. Mendel believed that an organism inherits the physical characteristics due to certain 'elements', which are now called genes. By the beginning of XX century. already known, . that genes are located in the chromosomes of the cell nucleus, . in the next few decades, biochemists have gradually deciphered the chemical structure of nucleic acids - ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA),
. In 40-ies. found that genes are composed of DNA that regulate the biochemical processes in cells. Once in 1953. Francis Crick and James D. Watson deciphered the chemical structure of DNA, it became possible to understand not only how this molecule is reproduced, but also how it is contained in the genetic code determines the inheritance of properties of the organism.
In the early 50-ies. ZH. and his colleague, Elie Wollman, . conducting research at the Pasteur Institute, . set, . that the chromosomes of bacterial cells are circular structures, . attached to the cell membrane, . and that these chromosomes can be added or, . contrary, . splitting off of these small fragments of genetic material,
. In the late 50-ies. ZH. and Jacques Monod discovered one of the three types of RNA - messenger RNA (two other varieties - is the ribosomal RNA, and RNA transport). Each of these three forms of RNA performs a strictly defined function in a coherent transfer of genetic information - from DNA via RNA to protein synthesis. Messenger RNA takes genetic information from DNA, located in the cell nucleus, and carries it to the ribosomes. These particles, which is protein synthesis, are located in the cytoplasm - the protoplasm of the extra-nuclear cells. Transport RNA migrates to the ribosomes structural elements of proteins - amino acids. These amino acids are arranged in the protein chain in a strictly defined manner on the basis of the matrix, which is recorded on the mRNA.
In addition, M. and Monod discovered that the DNA contains two different types of genes - the structural and regulatory. Structural genes are responsible for the transmission of genetic code from one cell generation to another, as well as control the synthesis of proteins. Regulatory genes interact with the structural and regulate all biochemical processes in the cell, . thereby allowing it to adapt to environmental changes, . example to change the quantity and quality of incoming nutrients in it,
. If okolokletochnaya Wednesday stable regulatory genes inhibit (repress) the structural. If the environment changes, the structural genes are activated and thereby contribute to cell adaptation to new conditions. ZH. Mono and called the set of structural and regulatory genes, operons, and the gene responsible for repression and activation - genome-operator.
Studies M. and his colleagues found that the particles of bacteriophages contain both structural and regulatory genes. During non-infective stage of development of these viruses (stage prophage) structural genes for their reproduction (replication), inhibited. Lviv found that ultraviolet radiation can cause the activation of the structural gene for phage multiplication, leading to its replication and the destruction of bacterial cells.
M. and his colleagues at the Pasteur Institute, are supporters of the virus theory of carcinogenesis - the formation of cancerous tumors. They believe that the viral particles exist in human cells in a latent state (like the inactive phase of the prophage in the bacterial cells) and that of their carcinogenic properties can be induced by a variety of factors. In this activated virus introduced into the biochemical mechanism of cells, causing tumor growth.
In 1960, Mr.. ZH. was promoted to head of the department of cellular genetics at the Pasteur Institute, and four years later at the College de France, for it was created Department of Cell Genetics.
In 1965, Mr.. ZH. with Lvov and Monod received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discoveries concerning the genetic control of synthesis of enzymes and virus'. In the congratulatory speech, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sven Gard said that before the research conducted by these scholars, 'it was not known how genetic information is realized, ie. transformed into chemical activity '. 'The French scientists have shown - he added - as structural information recorded in the genes controlled by chemical processes'. According to the Garda, their work is 'marked the beginning of a whole area of research, which in the full sense can be called molecular biology'.
In 1947, Mr.. ZH. married pianist Lisa Bloch. In the family they have four children.
M. awarded many prizes in t.ch. Charles Leopold Mayer Prize of the French Academy of Sciences (1962). He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the London Royal Society, the Danish Academy of Sciences and Literature and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.