Jean Brachet

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jean Brachet
FRS
Born
Jean Brachet

19 March 1909
Etterbeek, Belgium
Died10 August 1988 at 79 years
EducationL'École alsacienne, Paris
Alma materUniversité libre de Bruxelles
Known for
  • Role of RNA in protein synthesis
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Jean Louis Auguste Brachet (19 March 1909 – 10 August 1988) was a Belgian biochemist who made a key contribution in understanding the role of RNA.

Life

Brachet was born in Etterbeek near Brussels in Belgium, the son of Albert Brachet, an eminent embryologist.[1]

He was educated at L'École alsacienne in Paris and the Royal Athenaeum of Ixelles in Brussels [fr]. He studied medicine at the Université libre de Bruxelles ('Free University of Brussels', the institution operating between 1834 and 1969), graduating in 1934. He then worked at the University of Cambridge and at Princeton University and at several institutes of marine biological research.[1]

Brachet was appointed Professor of Animal Morphology and General Biology at the Université libre de Bruxelles and Research Director of the International Laboratory for Genetics and Biophysics in Naples.[2]

In 1933 Brachet was able to show that

chromosomes and that RNA was present in the cytoplasm
of all cells.

At the same time as

cell differentiation. Brachet demonstrated that differentiation is preceded by the formation of new ribosomes and accompanied by the release from the nucleus of a wave of new messenger RNA.[3]

In 1934 he married Françoise de Baray. In 2004, his daughter Lise Brachet published a biography of her father.[4]

In 1948 Jean Brachet was awarded the

Royal Academy of Belgium for the best original work in embryology, an award instituted in honour of his father. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1966.[1]

Publications

  • Étude histochimique des protéines au cours du développement embryonnaire des Poissons, des Amphibiens, et des Oiseaux, Archives de Biologie 51, 167-202
  • Embryologie Chimique (1944)
  • Biological Cytology (1957)
  • Introduction to Molecular Embryology (1957)
  • Molecular Cytology (2 vols.) (1985)

References

  1. ^
    PMID 11616181
    .
  2. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. PMID 9284643
    .
  4. ISBN 978-2-7475-7497-6
    .

Notes

  1. ^ Not the post-1969 Université libre de Bruxelles, but its predecessor institution.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean_Brachet&oldid=1280163051"