Bernard Malissen

Bernard Malissen's work focused mainly on describing the genetic recombination mechanisms that allow the synthesis of T-cell receptors (TCR)^[4] - the surface receptor that triggers cell differentiation of the T-cell that carries it and contributes to the body's defences against infectious agents or tumours - and on studying their three-dimensional structure.^[5]

In the 1980s, he also developed gene transfer approaches to reconstruct the TCR multi-molecular complex from scratch to study how it induces T lymphocyte activation,^[6][7][8][9] and then his team developed transgenic mouse models to study T cell development and function in their physiological context.^[10][11]

Using functional genomics tools, Bernard Malissen was able to describe the different types of dendritic cells - which are responsible for capturing and presenting T cell antigens particularly effectively - present in tissues such as skin and how they perform sentinel functions.^[12][13][14] To understand the complexity of signal transduction networks involved in the activation of T cells and dendritic cells, Bernard Malissen is currently using so-called "omics" approaches to simultaneously measure a large number of parameters and describe how T lymphocytes function under normal and pathological conditions.

• 1982: CNRS Bronze medal
• 1986: Prize of the Foundation for Medical Research
• 1988: Bernard Halpern Prize
• 1996: CNRS silver medal
• 2005: Grand Prix de la recherche médicale de l'Inserm^[1]
• 2018: Grand Prize of the Foundation for Medical Research^[15]