Gérard Orth was born on February 7, 1936, in Paris is a French

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their ...

, emeritus research director at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, honorary professor at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines f ...

. Gérard Orth has devoted his research to the study of the role of

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

es in the genesis of human

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

s. His research has focused on

papillomaviruses ''Papillomaviridae'' is a family of non- enveloped DNA viruses whose members are known as papillomaviruses. Several hundred species of papillomaviruses, traditionally referred to as "types", have been identified infecting all carefully inspected ...

and their association with benign tumours and skin and cervical cancers. He is a member of the

French Academy of sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

Biography

Gérard Orth is a graduate of the

École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort The National veterinary school of Alfort ( or ''ENVA'') is a French public institution of scientific research and higher education in veterinary medicine, located in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne, close to Paris. It is operated under the superv ...

(1959), the Institut Pasteur (1960) and the faculté des sciences de Paris (1963-1964).His scientific activities took place at the Gustave Roussy Institute (IGR), Villejuif, in Claude Paoletti's Laboratory (1962-1979), then at the Pasteur Institute (IP), Paris (1980–present).He was a statutory researcher at INRA (1963-1965), CNRS (1966-2001), Institut Pasteur (1992-2003; guest researcher since 2004). He has directed several laboratories: Research Unit on the viral etiology of human cancers, IGR (1975-1979); HPV Unit, IP (1980-2003); Unit 190 Inserm (1977-2000). Head of the Virology Department, IP (1991-1996, 2001–2003).

Scientific Works

Gérard Orth has focused his research on the role of papillomaviruses (PV) in the genesis of benign tumours and skin and cervical cancers using epidermodysplasia verruciforme (EV), a rare autosomal recessive skin disease, associated with a high risk of skin carcinomas (in collaboration with Stefania Jablonska)Orth G, Favre M, Breitburd F, Croissant O, Jablonska S, Obalek S, Jarzabek-Chorzelska M, Rzesa G, « Epidermodysplasia verruciformis: a model for the role of papillomaviruses in human cancer », ''Cold Spring Harbor Conf. Cell Prolif'', (1980) 7, p. 259-82Jablonska S, Orth G, « Epidermodysplasia verruciformis », ''Clin Dermatol'', (1985) 3(4), p. 83-96Orth G, « Epidermodysplasia verruciformis : a model for understanding the oncogenicity of human papillomaviruses », ''CIBA Fdn Symp'', (1986) 120, p. 157-69 and PV-induced warts and skin cancers in rabbitsOrth G, Jeanteur P, Croissant O, « Evidence for and localization of vegetative viral DNA replication by autoradiographic detection of RNA-DNA hybrids in sections of tumors induced by Shope papilloma virus », ''Proc Natl Acad Sci USA'', (1971) 68, p. 1876-80Han R, Breitburd F, Marche PN, Orth G, « Linkage of regression and malignant conversion of rabbit viral papillomas to MHC class II genes », ''Nature'', (1992) 356, p. 66-68Nonnenmacher M, Salmon J, Jacob Y, Orth G, Breitburd F, « Cottontail rabbit papillomavirus E8 protein is essential for wart formation and provides new insights into viral pathogenesis », ''J Virol'', (2006) 80, p. 4890-900 as models. Many original contributions to the knowledge of the plurality of human PVs infecting the skinOrth G, Jablonska S, Favre M, Croissant O, Jarzabek-Chorzelska M, Rzesa G, « Characterization of two types of human papillomaviruses in lesions of epidermodysplasia verruciformis », ''Proc Natl Acad Sci USA'', (1978) 75, p. 1537-41 and

mucous Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It is ...

membranes,Beaudenon S, Kremsdorf D, Croissant O, Jablonska S, Wain-Hobson S, Orth G, « A novel type of human papillomavirus associated with genital neoplasia », ''Nature'', (1986) 321, p. 241-49 their

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

pathogen In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

icity or

oncogenic Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abno ...

potential,Lutzner MA, Orth G, Dutronquay V, Ducasse MF, Kreis H, Crosnier J, « Detection of human papillomavirus type 5 DNA in skin cancers of an immunosuppressed renal allograft recipient », ''Lancet'', (1983) 2, p. 422-24Schneider-Maunoury S, Croissant O, Orth G, « Integration of human papillomavirus type 16 DNA sequences: A possible early event in the progression of genital tumors », ''J Virol'', (1987) 61, p. 3295-98Couturier J, Sastre-Garau X, Schneider-Maunoury S, Labib A, Orth G, « Integration of papillomavirus DNA near myc genes in genital carcinomas and its consequences on proto-oncogene expression », ''J Virol'', (1991) 65, p. 4534-38 to understanding the mechanisms and factors involved in the expression of the biological properties of PV, in particular, genetic factors, and to preventing associated diseases. Coordinated with

Philippe Sansonetti Philippe J. Sansonetti (born 9 April 1949) is a French microbiologist, professor at the Pasteur Institute and the Collège de France in Paris. He is the director of the Inserm Unit 786 (Microbial colonisation and invasion of mucosa) and of the Ins ...

the drafting of a report by the French Academy of sciences on the control of infectious diseases, in the context of the concept "One health, one medicine", and that of a report by the Académie vétérinaire de France on research in national veterinary schools.

Honours and awards

*Delahautemaison Prize from the Foundation for Medical Research (1979). *Antoine Lacassagne Prize of the National Cancer League (1982). *Rosen Prize from the Foundation for Medical Research (1982). *Silver medal of the CNRS (1983). *

Robert Koch Prize The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...

(1985). *Henry and Mary-Jane Mitjavile Prize from the National Academy of Medicine (1988). *Medal of Honor, International Agency for Research on Cancer (1993). *

Leopold Griffuel Prize The Leopold Griffuel Prize (Prix Leopold Griffuel) for translational and clinical research is sponsored by the French ARC Foundation for Cancer Research. The prize is designed to reward the accomplishments of and encourage further research among th ...

(1997). *Elected member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

(1995), the Académie vétérinaire de France (2003) and the French Academy of sciences, correspondent (1996), full member (2004). *Foreign associate member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

(199730). *Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

(1996). *Officier in the

Ordre du Mérite A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

(2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orth, Gerard 1936 births Scientists from Paris French veterinarians Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research Pasteur Institute French molecular biologists French virologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Living people