Jacob, François (1920– )

French biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965, with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff, for their work on the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis. They pioneered research into molecular genetics and showed how the production of proteins from DNA is controlled.

Jacob was born in Nancy and studied at the University of Paris. In 1950 he joined the Pasteur Institute in Paris as a research assistant, becoming head of the Department of Cellular Genetics in 1964 and also professor of cellular genetics at the Collège de France.

Jacob began his work on the control of gene action in 1958, working with Lwoff and Monod. It was known that the types of proteins produced in an organism are controlled by DNA, and Jacob focused his research on how the amount of protein is controlled. He performed a series of experiments in which he cultured the bacterium Escherichia coli in various mediums to discover the effect of the medium on enzyme production. He and his team found that there were three types of gene concerned with the production of each specific protein.