Prof. Johan Auwerx, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor at the Medical Faculty, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
Johan Auwerx received his M.D. in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Molecular Endocrinology in 1989 at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He is a certified clinical specialist in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition and is currently professor at the Medical Faculty of the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg. Prof. Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003.
Prof. Auwerx currently heads a research group in the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC) and is the director of the Institut Clinique de la Souris (ICS) in Illkirch, France. Prof. Auwerx is internationally known as an expert in metabolic diseases, molecular biology, and mouse molecular genetics. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of the peroxisome prolifération activated receptors into drugs, that now are commonly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Institut Clinique de la Souris (ICS)
Mouse Clinical Institute (ICS)
The ICS (directed by Professor Johan Auwerx) is situated in the Science Park of Illkirch some 5 miles south of Strasbourg city centre. A modern institute having both new animal facilities and extensive diagnostic/phenotyping facilities for the detailed analysis of the consequences of these mutations, is housed in a new building adjacent to the main Institute of Genetics (IGBMC) structure, with which it has strong interactions.
The ICS employs a targeted mutagenesis strategy with a special emphasis on spatially and temporally controlled somatic mutagenesis in the mouse so as to study mammalian functional genomics throughout development and post-natal life. The ICS was amongst the 1st centres to implement such a temporally controlled somatic mutagenesis strategy and recently established an in-depth high throughput mice phenotypic screening platform covering all important organ systems by regrouping molecular biologists and clinical scientists in an interactive environment. The further development of high throughput phenotyping at the ICS is fostered by its prime role in the EU funded Eumorphia program, focussed on the standardization of mouse phenotyping. This integrative approach facilitates the development of mice models for human disease.
