Catherine Dulac is a French-American biologist. She is the Higgins Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, where she served as department chair from 2007 to 2013. She is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was born in 1963 in France. She came to the United States for her postdoctoral study in 1991. Dulac has done extensive research on the molecular biology of olfactory signaling in mammals, particularly including

pheromones A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

, and downstream

brain circuits A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Neural circuits interconnect to one another to form large scale brain networks. Biological neural networks have inspired the ...

controlling sex-specific behaviors. She developed a novel screening strategy based on screening cDNA libraries from single

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. ...

s and a new method of cloning genes from single neurons. As a postdoc, Dulac discovered the first family of mammalian pheromone receptors when working in Nobel laureate

Richard Axel Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and List of university professors at Columbia University, university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medic ...

's laboratory at Columbia University.

Biography

Dulac grew up in Montpellier, France, graduated from the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm, Paris, and earned a Ph.D. in developmental biology from 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 ...

in 1991. She worked with

Nicole Le Douarin Nicole Marthe Le Douarin (born 20 August 1930) is a developmental biologist known for her studies of chimeras, which have led to critical insights regarding higher animal nervous and immune systems. Le Douarin invented an embryo manipulation ...

on developmental biology, and carried out her postdoc studies with

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

where she identified the first genes encoding mammalian pheromone receptors. Dulac joined the faculty of Harvard Molecular and Cell Biology in 1996,"Harvard Portrait: Catherine Dulac"
''Harvard Magazine'', Sept. – Oct. 2005. She was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and full professor in 2001. She is currently an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and was the Chair of Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology until 2013. She teaches three graduate level course including Molecular Basis of Behavior, Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Senses and Their Disorders, and Molecular and Developmental Biology Neurobiology.

Publications

Notable papers

* * * * * * * * *

Other

* * * *

Awards and honors

* 1998

Searle Scholar The Searle Scholars Program is a career development award made annually to the 15 young US professionals in biomedical research and chemistry considered most promising. The award was established in 1980 by a donation from the Searle family, and is ...

* 2004 Member,

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, a ...

Hastings, J. W. (May 12, 2004
"Catherine Dulac Elected to Membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences"
, Harvard University MCB News. * 2006

Richard Lounsbery Award The Richard Lounsbery Award is given to American and French scientists, 45 years or younger, in recognition of "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine." The Award alternates between French and American scientists, and is awa ...

* 2007 Member, French Academy of Sciences * 2010

Perl-UNC Prize The Perl-UNC Prize is awarded internationally in the field of neuroscience. Its purpose is two-fold: to recognize researchers for outstanding discoveries and seminal insights in neuroscience and to celebrate the strength of the neuroscience resea ...

* 2015 Pradel Research Award by the National Academy of Sciences * 2017 Scolnick Prize by the McGovern Institute * 2018 Karl Spencer Lashley Award * 2019 Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience * 2021

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a scientific award, funded by internet entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of the ...

She was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Research Summary & Profile
Harvard University

January 31, 2002 (HHMI Research News)

*"Making the Paper: Catherine Dulac", ''Nature'', v.448 (August 30, 2007).
Catherine Dulac Seminars
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dulac, Catherine 1963 births Living people 21st-century American biologists Howard Hughes Medical Investigators University of Paris alumni Columbia University people Harvard University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences American women biologists Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists American women academics French emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women scientists