Frédéric Triebel (born 20 November 1954) is a French immunologist who is best known for his 1990 discovery of the

LAG3 Lymphocyte-activation gene 3, also known as LAG-3, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''LAG3'' gene. LAG3, which was discovered in 1990 and was designated CD223 (cluster of differentiation 223) after the Seventh Human Leucocyte Diffe ...

immune control mechanism. Triebel worked through the 1990s in a collaboration between

Institut Gustave Roussy Institut Gustave Roussy (), sometimes called Gustave Roussy, is a cancer research hospital in Europe. It is located near Paris. It is named after Gustave Roussy, a Swiss-French neuropathologist. In April 2019, three new interventional radiology r ...

and

Merck Serono Merck Serono (EMD Serono in the United States and Canada) is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany, and a brand and division of Merck focused on biopharmaceuticals. In September 2006, Merck KGaA announced its intent to ...

to establish LAG-3's mechanism of action in

T cells T cells (also known as T lymphocytes) are an important part of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell receptor (TCR) on their ce ...

and

dendritic cells A dendritic cell (DC) is an antigen-presenting cell (also known as an ''accessory cell'') of the mammalian immune system. A DC's main function is to process antigen material and present it on the cell surface to the T cells of the immune system ...

. In 2001 he founded Immutep SA, a biotech company, to develop the therapeutic potential of LAG3. In 2014 this company was acquired by

Prima BioMed Immutep Ltd (formerly Prima Biomed) is a biotechnology company working primarily in the field of cancer immunotherapy using the LAG3 immune control mechanism. The company was originally built on CVac, a therapeutic cancer vaccine. In late ...

, where Triebel remains Chief Scientific and Medical Officer.

Early life and education

He completed his Doctor of Medicine degree at

Poitiers University The University of Poitiers (UP; , ) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France ...

in 1981 and then a four-year clinical

hematology Hematology (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to bloo ...

fellowship in Paris hospitals. In 1983, Frédéric Triebel received the Gold Medal of the Paris Medicine University. In parallel, Triebel gained a PhD in

Immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

at the

University of Paris VI Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

in 1985. His PhD thesis was in the field of

immunogenetics Immunogenetics or immungenetics is the branch of Medical Immunology and Medical Genetics that explores the relationship between the immune system and genetics. Autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, are complex genetic traits which result ...

, focused on the mechanisms that activate human

antigen In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule, moiety, foreign particulate matter, or an allergen, such as pollen, that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. ...

-specific T-cells.

Career

From 1986 until the late 1990s, Triebel headed the cellular immunology group in the Department of Clinical Biology of the Institut Gustave Roussy. In 1990 he gained a Chair in Molecular Immunogenetics and Biotherapy at the University of Paris XI. Between 1991 and 1996 was director of 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 ...

unit (U333). He founded Immutep SA in 2001 in order to develop the clinical potential of LAG3 and stayed with this company through to its acquisition by Prima BioMed in 2014. Triebel remains Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of Immutep. From 1993 to 1998, Frédéric Triebel was appointed as member of the

Institut Universitaire de France The Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, Academic Institute of France), is a service of the French Ministry of Higher Education that annually distinguishes a small number of university professors for their research excellence, as evidenced by t ...

Work on LAG3 prior to 2001

Triebel reported the first cloning of the

gene in 1990, and two years later his team were able to show that the LAG-3 protein was a

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule with a functional group that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's el ...

for

MHC Class II MHC Class II molecules are a class of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules normally found only on professional antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells, macrophages, some endothelial cells, thymic epithelial cells, and B cell ...

molecules like CD4. In 1997 the Triebel lab identified the LAG-3 amino-acid residues involved in LAG-3/MHC class II interaction. In 1998 Triebel et al. performed the first characterization of the human CD4/LAG-3 gene locus, in the process identifying the LAG-3 promoter regulatory elements. Also in 1998 the Triebel team were the first to characterizing the negative regulatory role of LAG-3 on CD3/TCR signaling. His team was the first to show that, as a soluble molecule, LAG-3 activates antigen-presenting cells through

MHC class II MHC Class II molecules are a class of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules normally found only on professional antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells, macrophages, some endothelial cells, thymic epithelial cells, and B cell ...

signalling, resulting in antigen-specific T-cell responses. Soluble LAG3, in a dimeric recombinant form called LAG-3Ig is now Immutep's lead compound.

Immutep

Frédéric Triebel founded Immutep in 2001 with John Hawken, a bioentrepreneur, to acquire the intellectual property which Triebel had created with INSERM and the Institut Gustave Roussy related to LAG3 and then move LAG3-based products into the clinic. Serono granted an exclusive worldwide license. The company raised €2.5m in venture capital in late 2003 and another €2.5m in January 2005. Between 2001 and 2014 Immutep scientists did further basic and applied research on LAG3 and also completed a number of clinical studies, most notable in metastatic renal cell carcinoma in 2009 and metastatic breast cancer in 2010. Immutep was sold to Prima BioMed in 2014 for US$25m.

Distinctions

* 1983: Gold Medal, Paris Residency program * 2000: Prix Lucien Tartois de la Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Triebel, Frederic 1954 births Living people French immunologists People from Douala Inserm directors