Time: 10:00, June 4, 2015

Venue: 8th Floor of the No. 1 Laboratory Building

Speaker: Prof. Jean-David Rochaix University of Geneva

Title: Functional analysis of essential chloroplast genes through conditional plastid gene repression: new insights into chloroplast signaling

Introduction to the Speaker: 

Jean-David Rochaix studied Physics at the University of Lausanne. He completed his PhD studies in the Biophysics department of Harvard University in 1972. After post-doctoral work in the Biology department of Yale University he joined the Department of Molecular of the University of Geneva as “Chargé de recherches” in 1974 and was nominated professor in 1981. He was Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology from 1991-1994 and 1998-2001 and elected member of EMBO (1981) and Academia Europea (2002). He was Chairman of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme (2000-2004) and he was member of the EMBO Council (1994-1999) and of the Council of Scientists of the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (2006-2010). Moreover he was president of the Biology Platform of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (2007-2012).

His research interests bear on the biogenesis and regulation of the photosynthetic apparatus in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the land plant Arabidopsis thaliana. He used mostly molecular-genetic approaches to study chloroplast gene expression and the interactions between the plastid and nuclear genetic systems. His laboratory developed new tools for chloroplast genetic engineering. During the past years his interests have shifted towards the molecular mechanisms underlying acclimation of photosynthetic organisms to changing light conditions. This work led to the discovery of the Stt7/STN7 protein kinase which acts as a redox sensor and is involved in state transitions and retrograde signaling. More recently his group developed a repressible chloroplast gene expression system which led to the discovery of novel plastid signaling pathways.

Professor Rochaix published 233 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Cell; Science and Nature.