Anne Dejean-Assémat (born 6 January 1957) is Director of Research INSERM and Professor at the Institut Pasteur. She heads the Laboratory of Nuclear Organization and Oncogenesis at the Institut Pasteur and the INSERM Unit 993. She was elected member of the French Academy of Science in 2004.
Anne Dejean-Assémat was educated at the Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, graduating with a Master of Science degree in Genetics in 1981. She then earned her PhD from the University Pierre et Marie Curie at the Institut Pasteur in 1988 under the supervision of Piotr Slonimski.
A molecular biologist, Anne Dejean-Assémat investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the development of human cancers.
She discovered the role of mutations in retinoic acid receptors in liver cancer and acute promyelocytic leukaemia and dissected the molecular mechanisms underlying their role in oncogenesis and treatment sensitivity. Anne Dejean-Assémat and her collaborators have made important advances in understanding the origin of certain cancers and have opened up unique perspectives for new targeted therapeutic leads. Her main contributions are :
First demonstration of a direct role for the Hepatitis B Virus in human liver cancer as an insertional mutagenDiscovery of the first retinoic acid receptor gene at an HBV integration siteCloning of the first retinoic acid responsive elementMolecular cloning of the PML-RAR oncoprotein responsible for Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL)Discovery of a novel nuclear organelle, the PML Nuclear Body, involved in human leukemogenesisEstablishment of the molecular basis for the therapeutic effect of retinoic acid in APLDiscovery of the molecular basis for the therapeutic role of arsenic in APL : PML-RAR polysumoylation and degradationEstablishment of the first mouse model for hyposumoylationEMBO Member, 1995Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Medicine, 2004Member of the French Academy of Science, 2004Member of the Academia Europea, 2005Member of the European Academy of Sciences, 2011Awards and Honors
Prize Medical Research Foundation, 1989Prize Bernard Halpern, 1991Prize André Lwoff, 1994Prize Jeanne Loubaresse, Curie Institute, 1996Prize Mergier-Bourdeix of the National Academy of Science, 1997Prize Rosen, Medical Research Foundation, 1998Prize Mitjaville of the National Academy of Medicine, 1999Prize Hamdam of Medecine, 2000Prize Charles Oberling, 2002Prize Gagna and Van Heck, 2003Chevalier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, 2007Officier dans l’ordre national du Mérite, 2012Prize Léopold Griffuel, ARC, 2010L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science, 2010Prize Duquesne, 2014Grand Prix INSERM, 2014
