Dr Laurent Journot

Research Director, Institute for Functional Genomics, Montpellier
Director, MGX - Montpellier GenomiX, Montpellier

Email: laurent.journot@igf.cnrs.fr
Webpage link:

Laurent Journot is currently Research Director at the Institute for Functional Genomics in Montpellier. He obtained his B.Sc. and “Aggrégation” from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and his M.Sc. from Montpellier University. During his post-doctoral training at the ZMBH in Heidelberg, he cloned and characterized the G protein-coupled receptor for PACAP, a neuropeptide that displays anti-proliferative and anti-apoptotic activities. He previously was a Senior Investigator at the Centre for Pharmacology and Endocrinology in Montpellier, and focused on the signalling mechanisms elicited by PACAP to prevent neuronal apoptosis. His current research focus on the physiological roles of imprinted genes. Parental genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism of regulation that restrains the expression of a small subset of mammalian genes to one parental allele. Journot's main contribution is the demonstration that, despite seemingly disparate functions, imprinted genes work in a single gene network that controls embryonic development and whose function at the cellular level remains to be identified. Journot is also the Director of MGX - Montpellier GenomiX, a technological core facility that provides service in microarray-based technologies, deep sequencing, bio-statistics, and bio-informatics.