Jacob, Francois (1920-2013), a French geneticist, shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine with Andre Lwoff and Jacques Monod. The three scientists, all members of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, studied the cells of bacteria. They discovered in these cells a class of genes that controls the activity of other genes. Radiation and some chemicals can cause these controlling genes to function improperly. If the controlling genes malfunction, the other genes may get out of control and damage the cell. Some scientists believe the discovery will aid research on cancer, a disease in which uncontrolled cell division takes place.
Jacob was born on June 17, 1920, in Nancy, France. He served with the Free French in World War II (1939-1945). He earned doctoral degrees in medicine in 1947 and science in 1954. He joined the Pasteur Institute in 1950 and studied under Lwoff there. In 1964, Jacob became professor of cellular genetics at College de France, Paris. He died on April 19, 2013.
