Pierre Chambon was the founder of the Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology in Strasbourg, France. He was one of the leading molecular biologists who utilized gene cloning and sequencing technology to first decipher the structure of eukaryotic genes and their modes of regulation. His major contributions to science include the identification of RNA polymerase II (B), the identification of transcriptional control elements, the cloning and dissection of nuclear hormone receptors, revealing their structure and showing how they contribute to human physiology. His group was also one of the first to demonstrate, biochemically and electron-microscopically, that the nucleosome is the smallest unit of chromatin. He accomplished much of his work in the 1970s – 1990s.
Kim Ashley Nasmyth is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), and former head of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. He is best known for his work on the segregation of chromosomes during cell division.
An insulator is a type of cis-regulatory element known as a long-range regulatory element. Found in multicellular eukaryotes and working over distances from the promoter element of the target gene, an insulator is typically 300 bp to 2000 bp in length. Insulators contain clustered binding sites for sequence specific DNA-binding proteins and mediate intra- and inter-chromosomal interactions.
A locus control region (LCR) is a long-range cis-regulatory element that enhances expression of linked genes at distal chromatin sites. It functions in a copy number-dependent manner and is tissue-specific, as seen in the selective expression of β-globin genes in erythroid cells. Expression levels of genes can be modified by the LCR and gene-proximal elements, such as promoters, enhancers, and silencers. The LCR functions by recruiting chromatin-modifying, coactivator, and transcription complexes. Its sequence is conserved in many vertebrates, and conservation of specific sites may suggest importance in function. It has been compared to a super-enhancer as both perform long-range cis regulation via recruitment of the transcription complex.
The human β-globin locus is composed of five genes located on a short region of chromosome 11, responsible for the creation of the beta parts of the oxygen transport protein Haemoglobin. This locus contains not only the beta globin gene but also delta, gamma-A, gamma-G, and epsilon globin. Expression of all of these genes is controlled by single locus control region (LCR), and the genes are differentially expressed throughout development.
Krueppel-like factor 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KLF1 gene. The gene for KLF1 is on the human chromosome 19 and on mouse chromosome 8. Krueppel-like factor 1 is a transcription factor that is necessary for the proper maturation of erythroid cells.
Krüppel-like Factor 2 (KLF2), also known as lung Krüppel-like Factor (LKLF), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KLF2 gene on chromosome 19. It is in the Krüppel-like factor family of zinc finger transcription factors, and it has been implicated in a variety of biochemical processes in the human body, including lung development, embryonic erythropoiesis, epithelial integrity, T-cell viability, and adipogenesis.
Transcription factor NF-E2 45 kDa subunit is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NFE2 gene.
Alexander Godfried Gerardus Maria (Xander) Tielens is an astronomer at Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, in the Netherlands. In 2012 he received the highest distinction in Dutch science, the Spinoza Prize.
Titia de Lange is the Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research, the Leon Hess professor and the head of Laboratory Cell Biology and Genetics at Rockefeller University.
Bryant Villeponteau is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and longevity expert who has worked in both academia and industry.
Anna Sergeevna Akhmanova is a Russian-born professor of Cell Biology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is best known for her research regarding microtubules and the proteins, called TIPs, that stabilize one specific end of the tubules. Among the awards she has won, she was one of the recipients of the 2018 Spinoza Prize, the highest honor for Dutch scientists.
Iain William Mattaj FRS FRSE is a British scientist and Honorary Professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. From 2005 to 2018 he was Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). He stepped down from the position at the end of 2018 following his appointment to Human Technopole. In January 2019 he took office as the first Director of Human Technopole, the new Italian institute for life sciences in Milan, Italy.
Sir Hugh Reginald Brentnall Pelham, is a cell biologist who has contributed to our understanding of the body's response to rises in temperature through the synthesis of heat shock proteins. He served as director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) between 2006 and 2018.
René Bernards is a Dutch cancer researcher. He is professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University and head of the section of molecular carcinogenesis at the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis. Bernards is a winner of the 2005 Spinoza Prize.
Tapas Kumar Kundu is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the head of the Transcription and Disease Laboratory of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is known for his studies on the regulation of Gene expression and his contributions in cancer diagnostics and the development of new drug candidates for cancer and AIDS therapeutics. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India and a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2005, for his contributions to biological sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.
Sir Richard Henry Treisman is a British scientist specialising in the molecular biology of cancer. Treisman is a director of research at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Meinrad Busslinger is a biochemist and immunologist, renown for his work on B cells. He is a Senior Scientist and Scientific Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria.
Jan Hendrik Jozef Hoeijmakers is a Dutch molecular biologist, biochemist, and molecular geneticist.
Reuven Agami is a Dutch cancer researcher. He is a professor of Oncogenomics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and head of the section of Oncogenomics at the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis. Since October 2023 the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has selected Reuven Agami as a member.
