Biography

Yann Herault is a geneticist and neurobiologist with training in cellular and molecular biology. He worked on gene regulation and cellular transformation during his PhD then he was interested in the regulation of the HoxD gene complex during embryonic development with a specific focus on limb. Now his research focused on evaluating the consequences of gene dosage effect and copy number variation on cognition focusing to investigate the physiopathology of a few disorders with intellectual disabilities (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He has worked on Down Syndrome (DS, or Trisomy 21), other intellectual disabilities associated with copy number variation, such as 16p11.2 or 17q21.31 syndromes, or single gene mutated in ID and ASD (Ptchd1, Arx, ..). He has developed several therapeutic approaches to rescue behaviour and cognition in DS and ASD models. Working with human geneticists who identified new mutations in rare intellectual disabilities, he has generated new models and produced a standard analysis of more than 50 genes for ID and ASD. Recently he has developped rat models for Down syndrome and for 16p11.2. He is leading his research group at the Institute of Genetics Molecular and Cellulare Biology (IGBMC).

Yann Herault is also directing the Mouse Clinical Institute (MCI/ICS) a centre devoted to serve the community for making or analysing more mouse and rat models. In addition he coordinates the French National infrastructure CELPHEDIA and PHENOMIN, partner of INFRAFRONTIER, the European infrastructure for mouse models (www.infrafrontier.org). Over the years he has built several collaborations with privates industries, both small and large biopharmaceutical companies. PHENOMIN-ICS has contributed to the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium aiming at delivering an encyclopedia of gene function in a mammalian models. This contribution led to several publications demonstrating the pleiotropy of gene function, the importance of gene controlling embryonic development, sexual dimorphism, the discovery of new genes involved in deafness and metabolic features.

Y. Herault did his PhD. at the University of Lyon in 1993, and got a post-doctoral training at the University of Geneva from 1993 to 1999. He was the Director of the infrastructure for Transgenesis and Archiving of Animal Models (TAAM) used by a large number of research groups from various locations form 2007 to 2014. With Marie Malissen , he has founded CELPHEDIA the National Infrastructure for animal research in the French roadmap for Infrastructure and he is coordinating the PHENOMIN national infrastructure for Biology and Health, laureate of the Investment for the Future in 2011 which is built around the ICS, the TAAM and the Centre for ImmunoPhenomique (CIPHE, head B. Malissen) in Marseille.

Spécialisations : mouse genetics, functional genomics, mouse models for fundamental, biomedical and pharmaceutical research, mouse phenotyping and expression analysis, aneuploidy, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, treatment and therapy

Laureate of the Price from the Foundation for Medical Resarch ( FRM) Alsace in 2010 and of the 4th Price from the Foundation Sisley Jérôme Lejeune in 2013