Jean-Pierre Lecocq
Encyclopedia
Jean-Pierre Lecocq was a Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 molecular biologist
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...

 and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

.

Education

Lecocq was born in Gosselies
Gosselies
Gosselies is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977. Gosselies is the home for the headquarters of Caterpillar Belgium, and Solar Turbines Europe....

/Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 but grew up in Nivelles
Nivelles
Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....

. In 1965 he received a scholarship to study Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 at the Free University of Brussels
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...

. In 1969 he graduated with honors (avec grande distinction). Starting in 1969, he worked on his doctoral thesis in the laboratory of Prof. René Thomas, Département de Biologie Moléculaire, on the interactions between a prokaryote
Prokaryote
The prokaryotes are a group of organisms that lack a cell nucleus , or any other membrane-bound organelles. The organisms that have a cell nucleus are called eukaryotes. Most prokaryotes are unicellular, but a few such as myxobacteria have multicellular stages in their life cycles...

 (Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...

) and a virus (bacteriophage lambda
Lambda phage
Enterobacteria phage λ is a temperate bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli.Lambda phage is a virus particle consisting of a head, containing double-stranded linear DNA as its genetic material, and a tail that can have tail fibers. The phage particle recognizes and binds to its host, E...

). He identified new bacterial gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

s influencing the decision between the lysogenic cycle and lysis
Lysis
Lysis refers to the breaking down of a cell, often by viral, enzymic, or osmotic mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a "lysate"....

 and he analyzed mutants of RNA polymerase
RNA polymerase
RNA polymerase is an enzyme that produces RNA. In cells, RNAP is needed for constructing RNA chains from DNA genes as templates, a process called transcription. RNA polymerase enzymes are essential to life and are found in all organisms and many viruses...

. From 1974 to 1975 Lecocq was drafted into the military, but returned to research to finish his PhD in 1975 with summa cum laude (la plus grande distinction). Until early 1977, he continued working at the Free University in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 as a post-doc (Chargé de Recherche) with short research stays in the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

) and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 (Laval University, Quebec
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

).

Professional career

From 1977 to 1980, in the early years of the rapidly developing field genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

, Lecocq was project manager in the Department of Genetics of the pharmaceutical company SmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

 RIT, in Rixensart
Rixensart
Rixensart is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On January 1, 2006 Rixensart had a total population of 21,355. The total area is 17.54 km² which gives a population density of 1,217 inhabitants per km²....

, Belgium, where he set up a molecular biology laboratory and directed the research on vaccines against enteropathogenic E. coli strains, and hepatitis B virus.

In 1980 he was appointed Scientific Director of Transgène, one of the first biotechnology companies in France, that was founded in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

 in 1979 at the initiative of Prof. Pierre Chambon and Dr. Philippe Kourilsky, the goal being to develop new technologies in biomedical research for industrial applications. In 1984, Lecocq became Vice President and in 1990 President of Transgène.

After Transgène was acquired in 1991 by the Mérieux group, Lecocq also became Corporate Director of Research and Development of the Pasteur-Merieux-Connaught Group, based in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

.

Jean-Pierre Lecocq died at age 44 in the crash of Air Inter Flight 148
Air Inter Flight 148
Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled airline flight on 20 January 1992 that crashed in the Vosges Mountains, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. 87 of the 96 onboard were killed....

 on 20 January 1992 at Mont Sainte-Odile
Mont Sainte-Odile
Mont Sainte-Odile is a 760 m peak of the Vosges Mountains in Alsace in France. The mountain is named for Saint Odile...

, Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

. He is survived by his wife Mireille and two children.

Research

From 1980 until 1992 Lecocq established French and international collaborations between Transgène, academic institutions and industry.

Under his leadership secretory
Secretion
Secretion is the process of elaborating, releasing, and oozing chemicals, or a secreted chemical substance from a cell or gland. In contrast to excretion, the substance may have a certain function, rather than being a waste product...

 and non-secretory expression systems for the production of recombinant proteins in E. coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of yeast. It is perhaps the most useful yeast, having been instrumental to baking and brewing since ancient times. It is believed that it was originally isolated from the skin of grapes...

, Baculovirus and mammalian cells in cell culture
Cell culture
Cell culture is the complex process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice, the term "cell culture" has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from singlecellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. However, there are also cultures of plants, fungi and microbes,...

 were developed and recombinant virus technology was established. A Hybridoma Laboratory provided for the development of monoclonal antibodis
Monoclonal antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are monospecific antibodies that are the same because they are made by identical immune cells that are all clones of a unique parent cell....

 for analyses (ELISA
ELISA
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay , is a popular format of a "wet-lab" type analytic biochemistry assay that uses one sub-type of heterogeneous, solid-phase enzyme immunoassay to detect the presence of a substance in a liquid sample."Wet lab" analytic biochemistry assays involves detection of an...

) and immunoaffinity chromatography
Affinity
Affinity is a word used in a variety of fields, usually to indicate some kind of preference, relationship, or a potential or actual closeness between two entities.Articles dealing with various usages of the word: affinity include:-Commerce and law:...

. Conventional as well as HPLC
High performance liquid chromatography
High-performance liquid chromatography , HPLC, is a chromatographic technique that can separate a mixture of compounds and is used in biochemistry and analytical chemistry to identify, quantify and purify the individual components of the mixture.HPLC typically utilizes different types of stationary...

 methods for downstream
Downstream processing
Downstream processing refers to the recovery and purification of biosynthetic products, particularly pharmaceuticals, from natural sources such as animal or plant tissue or fermentation broth, including the recycling of salvageable components and the proper treatment and disposal of waste. It is an...

 purification and analysis of the produced peptide
Peptide
Peptides are short polymers of amino acid monomers linked by peptide bonds. They are distinguished from proteins on the basis of size, typically containing less than 50 monomer units. The shortest peptides are dipeptides, consisting of two amino acids joined by a single peptide bond...

s, protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

s and glycoprotein
Glycoprotein
Glycoproteins are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to polypeptide side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycosylation. In proteins that have segments extending...

s were established.

These technologies have been applied, among others, to the following projects: a new concept based on vaccinia virus for a rabies vaccine
Rabies vaccine
Rabies vaccine is a vaccine used to control rabies. Rabies can be prevented by vaccination, both in humans and other animals.-In animals:Currently, pre-exposure immunization has been used on domesticated and normal non-human populations...

 in the wild (Raboral, in November 1991 awarded with the Rhone Poulenc Prize for Innovation and used in several countries for the vaccination of foxes, and raccoons), recombinant versions of Factor VIII
Factor VIII
Factor VIII is an essential blood clotting factor also known as anti-hemophilic factor . In humans, Factor VIII is encoded by the F8 gene...

 and Factor IX
Factor IX
Factor IX is one of the serine proteases of the coagulation system; it belongs to peptidase family S1. Deficiency of this protein causes hemophilia B. It was discovered in 1952 after a young boy named Stephen Christmas was found to be lacking this exact factor, leading to...

 for the treatment of hemophilia A on behalf of the French blood transfusion service CNTS; vaccine candidates for schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by several species of trematodes , a parasitic worm of the genus Schistosoma. Snails often act as an intermediary agent for the infectious diseases until a new human host is found...

, toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite infects most genera of warm-blooded animals, including humans, but the primary host is the felid family. Animals are infected by eating infected meat, by ingestion of feces of a cat that has itself...

 and babesia
Babesia
Babesia is a protozoan parasite of the blood that causes a hemolytic disease known as Babesiosis. There are over 100 species of Babesia identified; however only a handful have been documented as pathogenic in humans....

 canis; recombinant hirudin
Hirudin
Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of medicinal leeches that has a blood anticoagulant property...

, α-1-antitrypsin
Alpha 1-antitrypsin
Alpha 1-Antitrypsin or α1-antitrypsin is a protease inhibitor belonging to the serpin superfamily. It is generally known as serum trypsin inhibitor. Alpha 1-antitrypsin is also referred to as alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor because it inhibits a wide variety of proteases...

, gamma-interferon
Interferon-gamma
Interferon-gamma is a dimerized soluble cytokine that is the only member of the type II class of interferons. This interferon was originally called macrophage-activating factor, a term now used to describe a larger family of proteins to which IFN-γ belongs...

 and interleukin
Interleukin
Interleukins are a group of cytokines that were first seen to be expressed by white blood cells . The term interleukin derives from "as a means of communication", and "deriving from the fact that many of these proteins are produced by leukocytes and act on leukocytes"...

s, and variants thereof, construction of virtually all recombinant proteins of HIV-1, HIV-2 and SIV
Simian immunodeficiency virus
Simian immunodeficiency virus , also known as African Green Monkey virus and also as Monkey AIDS is a retrovirus able to infect at least 33 species of African primates...

 for mechanistic studies and applications in diagnosis
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...

, and immunization; characterization of α-thrombin
Thrombin
Thrombin is a "trypsin-like" serine protease protein that in humans is encoded by the F2 gene. Prothrombin is proteolytically cleaved to form thrombin in the first step of the coagulation cascade, which ultimately results in the stemming of blood loss...

 receptor, mechanisms of Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...

.

Publications

Between 1970 and 1991 Jean-Pierre Lecocq published 130 papers, 15 additional publications about subjects and projects initiated by Lecocq appeared from 1992 onwards.

The following is a selection of representative publications:
  • J.P. Lecocq (doctoral thesis) Étude génétique et biochimique de la régulation de la transcription Dépt. de Biologie Moléculaire, Université Libre de Bruxelles (1975)
  • J.P. Lecocq, C. Dambly, R. Lathe, C. Babinet, A. Bailone, R. Devoret, A.M. Gathoye, H. Garcia, M. Dewilde and T. Cabezon Nomenclature and location of bacterial mutations modifying the frequency of lysogenisation of E.coli by lambdoïd phages Molec. Gen. Genet. 145, 63-64 (1976)
  • J.P. Lecocq, M. Zubowski and R. Lathe Cloning and expression of viral antigens in Escherichia coli and other microorganisms in: "Methods in Virology" (1984), 7, 121-172, K. Maramorosch, H. Koprowski, eds, Academic Press Inc, Orlando, Florida.
  • M. Courtney, S. Jallat, L.H. Tessier, A. Benavente, R.G. Crystal and J.P. Lecocq Synthesis in E. coli of alpha1-antitrypsin variants of therapeutic potential emphysema and thrombosis Nature 313, 149-151 (1985)
  • H. de la Salle, W. Altenburger, R. Elkaim, K. Dott, A. Dieterlé, R. Drillien, J.P. Cazenave, P. Tolstoshev and J.P. Lecocq Active gamma-carboxylated human factor IX expressed using recombinant DNA techniques Nature 316, 268-270 (1985)
  • R.P. Harvey, E. Degryse, L. Stefanie, F. Schamber, J.P. Cazenave, M. Courtney, P. Tolstoshev and J.P. LecocQ Clonig and expression of a cDNA coding for the anticoagulant hirudin from the bloodsucking leech, hirudo medicinalis Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 1084-1088 (1986)
  • A. Capron, R. Pierce, J.M. Balloul, J.M. Grzych, C. Dissous, P. Sondermeyer and J.P. Lecocq Protective antigens in experimental schistosomiasis Acta Tropica 44, 63-69 (1987)
  • G. Rautmann, M.P. Kieny, R. Brandely, K. Dott, M. Girard, L. Montagnier and J.P. Lecocq HIV-1 core proteins expressed from recombinant vaccinia viruses AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses (1989) 5, 147-57.
  • M.P. Kieny, J.P. Lecocq, M. Girard, Y. Rivière, L. Montagnier and R. Lathe Tailoring the human immunodeficiency virus envelope glycoprotein to improve immunogenicity in: Vaccines 89, R.A. Lerner, H. Ginsberg, R.M. Chanock
    Robert M. Chanock
    Robert Merritt Chanock was an American pediatrician and virologist who made major contributions to the prevention and treatment of childhood respiratory infections in more than 50 years spent at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Chanock was born July 8, 1924 in Chicago. His...

    , F. Brown, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 177-183 (1989)
  • J.P. Van Eendenburg, M. Yagello, M. Girard, M.P. Kieny, J.P. Lecocq, E. Muchmore, P.N. Fultz, Y. Rivière, L. Montagnier and J.C. Gluckman Cell-mediated immune proliferative responses to HIV-1 of chimpanzees vaccinated with different vaccinia recombinant viruses AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses (1989) 5, 41-50.
  • T. Faure, A. Pavirani, P. Meulien, H. de la Salle, G. Mignot, H. van de Pol, M. Courtney and J.P. Lecocq Stable expression of coagulation factors VIII and IX in recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells Advances in Animal Cell Biology and Technology for Bioprocesses (1989), R.E. Spier, J.B. Griffiths, J. Stephenne, P.J. Crooy, Butterworths, England, 481-487.
  • M.F. Cesbron-Delauw, B. Guy, G. Torpier, R.J. Pierce, G. Lenzen, J.Y. Cesbron, H. Charif, P. Lepage, F. Darcy, J.P. Lecocq et al. Molecular characterization of a 23-kilodalton major antigen secreted by Toxoplasma gondii Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 7537-7541 (1989)
  • B. Brochier, M.P. Kieny, F. Costy, P. Coppens, B. Bauduin, J.P. Lecocq, B. Languet, G. Chappuis, P. Desmettre, K. Afiademanyo, R. Libois and P.P. Pastoret Large-scale eradication of rabies using recombinant vaccinia-rabies vaccine Nature 354, 520-522 (1991)
  • M.A. Rosenfeld, W. Siegfried, K. Yoshimura, K. Yoneyama, M. Fukayama, L.E. Stier, P.K. Paakko, P. Gilardi, L.D. Stratford-Perricaudet, M. Perricaudet, S. Jallat, A. Pavirani, J.P. Lecocq and R.G. Crystal Adenovirus-Mediated transfer of a recombinant alpha-1-antitrypsin gene to the lung epithelium in vivo Science, 252, 431-434 (1991)
  • U.B. Rasmussen, V. Vouret-Craviari, S. Jallat, Y. Schlesinger, G. Pages, A. Pavirani, J.P. Lecocq, J. Pouyssegur and E. Van Obberghen-Schilling cDNA cloning and expression of a hamster alpha-thrombin receptor coupled to Ca2+ mobilization FEBS Lett. 288, 123-128 (1991)
  • J.M. Reichart, I. Petit, M. Legrain, J.L. Dimarq, E. Keppi, J.P. Lecocq, J.A. Hoffmann and T. Achstetter Expression and Secretion in Yeast of Active Insect Defensin, an Inducible Antibacterial Peptide from the Fleshfly Phormia terranovae Invert. Reprod. and Dev., 21, 15-24 (1992)
  • M.A. Rosenfeld, K. Yoshimura, B.C. Trapnell, K. Yoneyama, E.R. Rosenthal, W. Dalemans, M. Fukayama, J. Bargon, L.E. Stier, L.D. Stratford-Perricaudet, M. Perricaudet, W.B. Guggino, A. Pavirani, J.P. Lecocq and R.G. Crystal In vivo Transfer of the Human Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Gene to Airway Epithelium Cell, 68, 143-155 (1992)

Editorial boards

Lococq was on the editorial boards of the following journals:
  • Cell (USA)
    Cell (journal)
    Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. Areas covered include molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, stem cells, developmental biology, genetics and genomics, proteomics, cancer research,...

    since 1983
  • Gene (USA)
    Gene (journal)
    Gene is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in genetics, focusing on gene cloning and gene structure and function. Gene has been published since 1976 by Elsevier....

    since 1983
  • European Journal of Epidemiology (Italy) since 1985
  • Protein Engineering (U.K.) since 1986
  • Journal of Biological Standardization (WHO) since 1989

Memberships

Lecocq was a member of the following organizations:
  • Société Belge de Biochimie since 1970
  • European Molecular Biology Organization
    European Molecular Biology Organization
    EMBO stands for excellence in the life sciences. The EMBO mission is to enable the best science by supporting talented researchers, stimulating scientific exchange and advancing policies for a world-class European research environment....

    (EMBO)
    since 1985
  • Conseil Scientifique des Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
    Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
    The Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique is a French public research institute dedicated to scientific studies surrounding the problems of agriculture...

     (INRA)
    since 1986
  • Advisor of the World Health Organization
    World Health Organization
    The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

     (WHO)
    in Geneva since 1986
  • Comité National de Biochimie: Section des Représentants Français des Industries Biologiques et Biochimiques since 1986
  • Conseil Scientifique de l'Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg since 1986
  • Conseil Scientifique de l'Association Française de Médecine Préventive since 1986
  • Comité d'Orientation de la Délégation Régionale de l'ANVAR France since 1986
  • Comité Académique des Applications de la Science (CADAS) since 1988

Fondation Jean-Pierre Lecocq

"Jean-Pierre has left us, victim of the Strasbourg airplane accident. This is a tragedy and an immense loss for our Institute. He was a friend for many of us. For all of us he leaves a memory of a warm, simple, generous man and one of a great scientist recognized and appreciated worldwide." ALAIN MÉRIEUX

To honor the achievements and the person, in 1992 the Fondation Jean-Pierre Lecocq was created, which since 1994 (and until the year 2020) awards a bi-annual prize for "new and significant research achievements in molecular biology and their application".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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