Born: 7 November 1938, Hadera, Israel Nationalities: France and Israel Education: Hebrew University, Jerusalem and University of Paris Web site: https://research.pasteur.fr/en/member/moshe-yaniv/

PRESENTATION: Moshe Yaniv is a Molecular Biologist, Honorary Professor at the Institut in Paris and the CNRS. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

EDUCATION: Moshe Yaniv studied Chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and received a Master degree in Organic Chemistry with Professor Saul Patai. He later moved to Paris, France and received a Doctorat d’Etat es Science in Molecular Biology in 1969 from the University of Paris working with Professor François Gros. During his thesis he also spent six months with Fredrick Sanger at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

CAREER AND RESEARCH: After his thesis, Moshe Yaniv spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Paul Berg at Stanford University Medical School. Upon returning to Paris France, he started his independent unit at the Pasteur Institute where he became full professor on 1987. He was also employed by the CNRS and was promoted Research Director in 1972. He was a Vallee Foundation Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School in 2001and 2003 and spends short term Visiting Professorships at the Weizmann Institute since 2009. He has headed the Oncogenic Viruses and Gene Expression and Disease Units at the Pasteur Institute (1975-2006) and chaired of the departments of Molecular Biology (86-88) and Biotechnology (92-94). During his PhD and postdoctoral training he studied the structure and function of tRNA, the system that helps translate the genetic code in the mRNA into proteins. He was later a pioneer in the field of DNA tumour viruses establishing the sequence of the first human Papillomavirus among others. He unravelled the structure of SV40 and Polyoma virus mini chromosomes and their replicating intermediates and identified transcription factors that control their expression. These factors were shown to be regulators of cell growth and were identified as oncogenes. With the availability of DNA cloning he initiated studies on tissue specific gene expression and identified and cloned several key transcription factors involved in liver, kidney and pancreas specific gene expression and unravelled their key role organogenesis. He developed mouse models for human diseases including, diabetes, polycystic kidney disease and cancer. He is the author of more than 300 publications in the most prestigious scientific journals. He served on numerous scientific panels and committees in France and around the world.

AWARDS AND HONORS: Member, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), 1978 Member, Academia Europaea, 1992 Member, French Academy of Sciences, 1995

       Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2001
       Member, European Academy of Cancer Sciences, 2008

Rosen Prize for Cancer Research, Foundation for Medical Research, 1983 Charles Léopold Mayer Prize, French Academy of Sciences,1995 Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur, 1999

       Mitjavile Prize for Cancer Research, French Academy of Medicine, 2006