Institut Pasteur scientists among the 2017 Academy of Sciences prize-winners

• Ludovic Deriano wins the 2017 Cancer Research Award from the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation and the Institut de France

The Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation was set up to support the fields of arts, literature and science in France and abroad through the annual award of prizes and grants to laureates selected by the Academies of the Institut de France (the Académie française, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Académie des beaux-arts, Académie des sciences and Académie des sciences morales et politiques).
 
The Cancer Research Award given by the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation and the Institut de France is an annual prize for a French or foreign researcher under the age of 45, working in France, whose discoveries have led to major progress in our understanding of the cell mechanisms that lead to the development of cancer.
 
The 32nd edition of the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation Cancer Research Award goes to Ludovic Deriano, Head of the Genome Integrity, Immunity and Cancer Unit. This prize recognizes his entire body of research on the mechanisms by which lymphocytes acquire genetic abnormalities and then become cancerous. Ludovic Deriano has determined the function of several proteins, especially the RAG nuclease and some factors in the DNA double-strand break repair pathway, in antigen receptor gene assembly and their importance in genome protection. Ludovic Deriano's team has also developed mouse models of lymphoid cancer and used high-throughput sequencing techniques to help shed light on the origins of the genetic instability observed in human lymphoma and leukemia.

• Mélodie Duval wins the Madeleine Lecoq Award from the Academy of Sciences

The Madeleine Lecoq Award, set up in 2006, is a biennial prize, with successive editions alternating between the Academy's two divisions – either physics or molecular and cellular biology/genomics. It is awarded to a female scientist who has recently obtained her PhD and is working in a laboratory belonging to or associated with the CNRS or Inserm.

This year's prize was awarded in the "Biology" category to Mélodie Duval, a post-doctoral research fellow in the Bacteria-Cell Interactions Unit, for her PhD work in Pascale Romby's laboratory in Strasbourg. Her findings helped shed light on the role of a specific Escherichia coli ribosomal protein in protein synthesis and gene expression regulation.

The official award ceremony took place on November 21 at the Institut de France.