Born in Paris on December 17 1948.
Alain Prochiantz graduated from the École normale supérieure (ENS) and obtained his doctorate from the Université Denis-Diderot in Paris. He headed the CNRS unit " development and evolution of the nervous system ", as well as the ENS biology department. After completing a thesis on the structure of messenger RNA in plant picornaviruses, Alain Prochiantz turned his attention to the study of brain morphogenesis. His major scientific contributions include the discovery of the topological heterogeneity of cerebral astrocytes and of a new mode of signaling by intercellular transfer of transcription factors of the homeoprotein class. His team is interested in the role of this signaling pathway during brain development, as well as in adults, and in the pathologies associated with its alterations. A particularly striking result is the ability to reopen periods of plasticity in the cerebral cortex by transiently blocking internalization of the Otx2 homeoprotein by interneurons in layer IV of the cerebral cortex. This reopening restored binocular vision in mice with experimental amblyopia. By analyzing the secretion and internalization mechanisms of these proteins, her team has discovered the first peptides capable of crossing cell membranes and serving as vectors for the intracellular delivery of pharmacological substances. In this vein, she is studying the possibility of using certain homeoproteins as therapeutic proteins in several pathologies, including Parkinson's disease.
Alongside his research work, Alain Prochiantz is the author of several books aimed at a wider audience. With playwright Jean-François Peyret, he has participated in the construction of plays that can be seen as attempts at the poetic manipulation of science.
At the Collège de France, he founded and directed the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Biologie, with 18 teams working in various fields of life sciences.
Alain Prochiantz was Administrator of the Collège de France from 2015 to 2019.
He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
