Jean-Pierre Changeux
Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Jean-Pierre Changeux is Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France and the Institut Pasteur. His research work in several fields of biology builds on his early work on protein structure and regulation, and more specifically on the mechanisms of biological signal transduction by allosteric interaction. In 1970, Jean-Pierre Changeux isolated the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor from the gymnote electric organ, the first membrane receptor for a neurotransmitter ever isolated, thanks to the properties of a snake venom toxin. Since the 1980s, he has been interested in cognitive functions, to which he has contributed both theoretical models and experimental foundations, mainly at the molecular level in mice. The implications of his research for human pathology range from the understanding of drug addiction to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.
