Jacques Lucien Monod

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Monod, Jacques Lucien

 

Born Feb. 9, 1910, in Paris. French biochemist and microbiologist.

Monod worked at the University of Paris after graduating from the university’s faculty of sciences in 1934. In 1945 he was made head of the laboratory of microbic physiology of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and in 1953 head of the institute’s department of cellular biochemistry. In 1971 he was appointed director of the Pasteur Institute. He also held professorships at the University of Paris, from 1959, and the Collège de France, from 1967.

Monod’s main works are devoted to bacterial growth and to the induction and repression of bacterial enzymes. Together with F. Jacob, he formulated the hypothesis on the transfer of genetic information by way of the mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) from DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to ribosomes. Jacob and Monod also proposed the concept of operon to explain the genetic regulation of protein synthesis in bacteria.

Monod is a member of various academies of sciences throughout the world. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1965 along with Jacob and A. Lwoff.

WORKS

“Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Synthesis of Proteins.” Journal of Molecular Biology, 1961, vol. 3, no. 3. (F. Jacob, coauthor.)
“Le Promoteur élément génétique nécessaire à 1’éxpression d’un opéron.” Comptes rendus des seances de l’Academic des sciences, 1964, vol. 258, no. 11. (F. Jacob and A. Ullman, coauthors.)

IA. A. PARNES

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.