Claude Paoletti Prize

Each year, the CNRS Institute for Biological Sciences and the CNRS Foundation award two Claude Paoletti prizes, in tribute to this researcher, former director of the CNRS Life Sciences Department, who took numerous initiatives to support young researchers.

The Claude Paoletti Prizes are awarded to young researchers who have distinguished themselves in their doctoral or post-doctoral work in the life sciences. Claude Paoletti graduated from the École de Santé Navale in Bordeaux (1946), then from the Faculty of Science in Paris, and was awarded a doctorate in physiology and biochemistry in 1958.

Director of the pharmacology department at the Institut Gustave-Roussy in 1964, he set up the first biochemistry-enzymology laboratory associated with the CNRS in 1970. He was one of the first researchers to demonstrate the existence of circulating hematopoietic factors, as well as the role of transferrin in the intracellular transport of metals. Between 1967 and 1968, together with Jean-Bernard Le Pecq, he described the fluometry technique, now considered a benchmark.

After a stay in the United States, during which he acquired knowledge of DNA enzymology, he became interested in the antitumor properties of various heterocyclic organic molecules, and isolated natural molecules with antitumor power, as well as synthetic derivatives that could enhance their pharmacological effects.

In 1972, he became head of the CNRS Pharmacology and Fundamental Toxicology Laboratory in Toulouse, and in 1975 discovered 9-hydroxyellipticine, a molecule active in cancer chemotherapy. Visiting professor at Stanford University in 1980, 1981 and 1983, he studied the biochemical processes of DNA repair due to the action of anti-tumor agents.

From 1984 to 1989, he directed research aimed at obtaining antisense oligonucleotides capable of selectively inhibiting certain genes, including oncogenes. Director of the CNRS Life Sciences Department from 1988 to 1992, he joined the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation as head of the Institut de biologie physico-chimique to set up a department to control genetic messages in eukaryotes.

Discover all the winners of the Claude Paoletti Prize!