Anne Bertolotti is a French

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

and cell biologist who works as Programme Leader at the

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(MRC LMB) in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, UK. In 2022 she was appointed Head of the MRC LMB's Neurobiology Division. She is known for her research into the cellular defences against

misfolded proteins Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein, after synthesis by a ribosome as a linear chain of amino acids, changes from an unstable random coil into a more ordered three-dimensional structure. This structure permits the prot ...

and the mechanisms underlying their deposition, the molecular problem causative of neurodegenerative diseases.

Education

Anne Bertolotti earned 2 B.S. degrees in biochemistry and plant physiology and an M.S. degree in cell and molecular biology from the

Louis Pasteur University Louis Pasteur University (, ULP), also known as Strasbourg I, was a large university in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. As of 15 January 2007, there were 18,847 students enrolled at the university, including around 3,000 foreign students. Researc ...

of Strasbourg, France. Bertolotti also received her PhD from the Louis Pasteur University for the discovery of hTAFII68 (now TAF15) while working with Laszlo Tora and

Pierre Chambon Pierre Chambon (; born 7 February 1931 in Mulhouse, France) was the founder of the in Strasbourg, France. He was one of the leading molecular biologists who utilized gene cloning and sequencing technology to first decipher the structure of eukar ...

at Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC).

Academic career

Bertolotti did her post-doctoral research with David Ron at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine,

NYU Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an integrated academic health system located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New Y ...

, New York, United States, making seminal discoveries in the mammalian unfolded protein response. In 2001, Bertolotti became an

Inserm The (Inserm, ) is the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. History and organisation Inserm was created in 1964 as a successor to the French National Institute of Health. Inserm is the only public research institution ...

Associate Professor at Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. In 2006, she became a group leader at the

. Bertolotti's research focuses on protein quality control systems in cells, due to their importance as the cellular defence against the misfolded proteins that accumulate in degenerative diseases, such as

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become more prevalen ...

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that is mostly Genetic disorder#Autosomal dominant, inherited. It typically presents as a triad of progressive psychiatric, cognitive, and ...

. She is known for her work on the mechanisms governing aggregation of disease-causing proteins, for identifying components of cellular defense mechanisms against protein aggregation and for the discovery of strategies to rescue cell survival under protein misfolding stress. One of such strategies consists of selective inhibition of an

eIF2 Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2 (eIF2) is a eukaryotic initiation factor. It is required for most forms of eukaryotic translation initiation. eIF2 mediates the binding of tRNAiMet to the ribosome in a GTP-dependent manner. eIF2 is a heterotrimer ...

phosphatase to reduce transient protein synthesis, allowing the cell to "catch up" with the required handling of misfolded proteins. Her group subsequently demonstrated that selective inhibitors had therapeutic effects in mouse models of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and Huntington's disease. One of the inhibitors discovered in Bertolotti's lab, Sephin1, has passed through favourable Phase 1 clinical trials in 2019 and is being developed for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Professional associations and awards

* 2004: EMBO Young Investigator Award * 2013: ERC consolidator grant *2013: Member of EMBO *2014: Hooke Medal by the British Society for Cell Biology, for contributions to the understanding of abnormal protein folding * 2017: Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) *2017:

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...

Award from the

Biochemical Society The Biochemical Society is a learned society in the United Kingdom in the field of biochemistry, including all the cellular and molecular biosciences. It was founded in 1911 and acquired the existing '' Biochemical Journal'' the following year. T ...

*2017:

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

Principal Investigator Award

References

External links

Anne Bertolotti
at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertolotti, Anne Year of birth missing (living people) Living people French women biologists Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)