Jules A. Hoffmann
French biologist (born 1941)
Who was Jules A. Hoffmann?
Jules Alphonse Nicolas Hoffmann (French pronunciation: [ʒyl ɔfman]; born 2 August 1941) is a Luxembourgish-French biologist. During his youth, growing up in Luxembourg, he developed a strong interest in insects under the influence of his father, Jos Hoffmann. He currently holds a faculty position at the University of Strasbourg. This eventually resulted in the younger Hoffmann's dedication to the field of biology using insects as model organisms. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France. He was elected to the positions of Vice-President (2005–2006) and President (2007–2008) of the French Academy of Sciences. Hoffmann and Bruno Lemaitre discovered the function of the fruit fly Toll gene in innate immunity. Its mammalian homologs, the Toll-like receptors, were discovered by Beutler.
Historical significance
Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler were jointly awarded a half share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity".