Norbert Perrimon (born October 24, 1958) is a

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

and

developmental biologist Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of stem ce ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. He is known for developing a number of techniques for use of ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

'', as well as specific substantive contributions to

signal transduction Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...

and

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

. Perrimon co-developed the

GAL4/UAS system The GAL4-UAS system is a biochemical method used to study gene expression and function in organisms such as the fruit fly. It is based on the finding by Hitoshi Kakidani and Mark Ptashne, and Nicholas Webster and Pierre Chambon in 1988 that Gal4 ...

method, described as “a fly geneticist's Swiss army knife”, with

Andrea Brand Andrea Hilary Brand (born March 9, 1959) is the Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. She heads a lab investigating nervous system development at the Gurdon Institute and the Department of Physiolog ...

to control gene expression. With Tze-bin Chou he developed the FLP-FRT DFS method to analyze the maternal effect of

zygotic A zygote (, ) is a eukaryotic cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism. In multicellula ...

lethal mutations. With Jianquan Ni, he developed and improved methods for ''in vivo'' RNAi. His lab has pioneered high-throughput whole-genome

RNAi RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

screening Screening may refer to: * Screening cultures, a type a medical test that is done to find an infection * Screening (economics), a strategy of combating adverse selection (includes sorting resumes to select employees) * Screening (environmental), a ...

. In 2003 he created the ''Drosophila'' RNAi Screening Center at Harvard Medical School and in 2008, he initiated the Transgenic RNAi Project to generate transgenic RNAi lines for the community using optimized shRNA vectors that his lab developed.

Education

Perrimon was born in 1958 in Bosguérard-de-Marcouville, France. He earned his undergraduate degree (Maitrise of Biochemistry) at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

VI, in 1981, then completed his doctorate in 1983 with Madeleine Gans, also at the University of Paris.

Career

From 1983 to 1986 Perrimon was a

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

er with

Anthony Mahowald Anthony Mahowald (born November 24, 1932) is a molecular genetics and cellular biologist who served as the department chair of the molecular genetics and cellular biology department at the University of Chicago. His lab focused on the Drosophila ...

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

, and in 1986 at the age of he accepted appointment as faculty at

. He is currently the James Stillman Professor of Developmental Biology in the Department of Genetics at

. He has been an Investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

since 1986.

Awards and honors

Perrimon was elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in April 2013, after naturalizing as an American citizen. * Lucille P. Markey Scholar in Biomedical Sciences, 1985. * Investigator,

, 1986–present * Chaire d’Etat.

College de France A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering v ...

. Paris, 2003 * George W. Beadle Medal,

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

, 2004 * RNAi Innovator Award, 2009 * Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, 2008 * Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, 2009 * Associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) 2011 * Fellow of the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrimon, Norbert Living people 1958 births French geneticists Developmental biologists University of Paris alumni Harvard Medical School faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences