Questions and AnswersProf. Jean-Jacques Panthier

How or why did you become involved in infection research, what fascinates you about this subject?
I became involved in infection research recently when I realized that unique mouse resources have been gathered at the Institut Pasteur and that they could be used to identify novel mechanisms of resistance to infection. Actually inbred strains derived from progenitors trapped in the wild in different countries around the world are currently bred at the Institut Pasteur, thanks to the inspired and persevering work of Jean-Louis Guénet. The availability of these inbred strains, the power of genetics to dissect quantitative traits in mice combined with the recognized expertise of microbiologists working on emerging and re-emerging diseases on the campus offered the framework for a project aimed at identifying mechanisms responsible for various susceptibilities to infections that might exist in natura.  

What are you working on at the moment?
As a first step, we have chosen to work with three real life-threatening pathogens: Yersinia pestis, the Plague agent, the West Nile virus that is responsible for fatal encephalitis, and the Rift Valley fever virus, that provokes hemorrhagic fever. Strains of mice with astounding phenotypes were identified, such as a strain derived for wild progenitors trapped in the area of Grenada in Southern Spain that is resistant to an otherwise lethal infection with Yersinia pestis. We are spending most time trying to understand the mechanisms governing these spontaneous resistances.   

What were the turning points in science, in career, in life that influenced
your decisions?
As a student at the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, a Grande Ecole of Life Sciences, in the mid-70’s, I attended lectures in Genetics and became fascinated by molecular biology and genetic engineering. At that time, the Institut Pasteur was the only place in France where molecular cloning experiments were beginning to be performed and I was trully priveleged to be accepted there to undertook a Docteur-Ingénieur diploma in yeast genetics. I later met François Rougeon with whom I was fortunate to prepare a Doctorat d’Etat (PhD) in Genetics on the Renin locus in the mouse (see below). François Rougeon teached me molecular biology and mouse genetics. Then François Jacob took me in his laboratory where I worked with late Hubert Condamine, an erudite embryologist. After he was awarded the Nobel Prize, François Jacob has shifted to work with mice and his laboratory rapidly became the leading french hub for mouse geneticists. It was a stimulating  and busy place where you could meet a number of brillant scientists, including Philip Avner, late Charles Babinet, Rolf Kemmler, Jean-François Nicolas, and many others. Later I was awarded the Chair in Genetics at the Alfort School of Veterinary Medicine, where I was asked to found a research laboratory in Mammalian Genetics.  It’s only fairly recently that I had the opportunity to spring back at the Institut Pasteur where I now work with Michel Cohen-Tannoudji and Xavier Montagutelli. My career has been shaped by discussions with outstanding scientists. The progress of methods and tools also had profound influences on my choices. I surely never had a career plan.

What was a single most important moment of your career?
One comes to my mind. I was revealing an autoradiography in a dark room at the Institut Pasteur: a Southern blot where total DNAs from two classical strains of mice, called BALB/c and AKR, have been hybridised with a renin cDNA probe. I saw appearing progressively in the aqueous developing solution two chromosomal fragments that had hybridized with the probe in the BALB/c genome while four chromosomal fragments were detected in the AKR genome. I realized that BALB/c mice carry a single copy of the renin gene per haploid genome, while AKR mice carry two copies of the renin gene per haploid genome. The renin structural gene was duplicated in AKR mice and this duplication could account for the fact that AKR mice express high level of renin in their submaxillary gland, while BALB/c mice express low level of renin. I immediately turned up in the office of François Rougeon, my supervisor, to share the excitement of the discovery.  

What was your most important scientific discovery?
That in the house mouse, adult females infected with a leukemia virus give birth to pups that carry the genome of these viruses inserted within their genome, as proviruses. In other words, that an exogenous leukemia virus transmissible within a living population could be naturally converted to an endogenous provirus transmitted vertically, from generation to generation through the germ line.

What drives you and carries you on? What do you love about your work?
I feel like the clerk of Oxenford in The Canterbury Tales who was happy to learn and happy to teach. Both activities imply that you understand.

What influenced and impressed you and your life and therefore science?
I appreciate the resoluteness of former scientists at the Institut Pasteur, such as Alfred Balachowski, Augustin Chabaud, François Jacob, Elie Wollman, and other soldiers, resistance combatants, political prisoners, who decided early after they fought World War II, while Europe was devastated, that Science was a priority and choose to embrace this activity.

Idols?
Not really, but I venerate elegant experiments performed by imaginative biologists.

What would you recommend to someone starting out in science? What would be your advice for young scientists?
Consider the recommendation of older scientists and make your own choices, matching your style and personality.

What would have been your alternative plan (plan B) if science /your job
had not worked out?
I would have loved becoming a musician, like many people.

What are your dreams for the future?
I wish to discover novel mechanisms of resistance to infectious diseases.    

What do you think is important in the future?
Investment in Education and Science was always profitable. It is important to convince our contemporaries that this still holds true.

What do you do when you are not working?
I listen to music, especially baroque music. I like gardening, I enjoy growing bearded Iris.

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