Germano Cecere, head of the group ‘Mechanisms of Epigenetic inheritance’, has received the Pasteur Vallery-Radot prize 2022.
Jacqueline Pasteur Vallery-Radot, the wife of Louis Pasteur’s grandson, chose the National Library of France (BnF) as the residuary legatee of her estate. Under the terms of her will, the BnF awards two €16,000 prizes every year in consultation with the Institut Pasteur.
Since 2007, these prizes have been awarded annually to two French scientists under the age of 50 and working at the Institut Pasteur who have led a major scientific project in the field of biology or physics/chemistry over the last five years, thus proving themselves to be worthy heirs of Pasteur himself.
Winners are chosen by a panel of Institut Pasteur and French Academy of Sciences members, chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences.
The panel selected this year, along with Francesca Di Nunzio, Head of the Advanced Molecular Virology unit, Germano Cecere. His research and that of his team focuses on the type of information transmitted and the mechanisms used by small RNAs to pass on information, acquired throughout the life of an individual, over several generations. The aim of their research is to explain how the experiences of our ancestors can have an influence on our own lives. This epigenetics research sheds new light on theories related to the heredity and inheritability of diseases.
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