Chairman : Sonia Garel
The functioning of biological systems relies on the use of a wide variety of information, both from their environment and from internal sources. Most internal information is stored in the form of chemical structures known as nucleic acids. DNA, in particular, the carrier of genetic information, has thus become the major target of deciphering.
In biology, however, the term "deciphering" is particularly ambiguous, and several levels of coding further complicate the achievement of this goal. Determining the chemical structure of DNA - the so-called sequencing - can be considered a first level of deciphering. It enables us to identify numerous signals. It also gives us easy access to a second code, that carried by the protein sequence. But this in turn needs to be deciphered. A protein is active in a three-dimensional configuration determined by its sequence. For seventy years, this three-dimensional structure was only accessible through experimental approaches. Recent advances, based in particular on artificial intelligence, now make it possible to predict in silicio the three-dimensional structure of a large majority of proteins from their sequence, and offer the prospect of major advances in the search for their functions. These and other aspects of DNA deciphering will be discussed.
Jean Weissenbach is a biologist and CNRS Gold Medalist. A pioneer in the exploration and analysis of genomes, in particular the human genome, he was long-time director of the Genoscope. He is now focusing on environmental microorganisms.
