Jules A.

Hoffmann
Jules Alphonse Nicolas Hoffmann (French
pronunciation: [ʒyl ɔfman]; born 2 August 1941) is a
Jules Alphonse Nicolas Hoffmann
French[1] biologist. During his youth, growing up in
Luxembourg, he developed a strong interest in insects
under the influence of his father, Jos Hoffmann. This
eventually resulted in the younger Hoffmann's
dedication to the field of biology using insects as
model organisms.[2] He currently holds a faculty
position at the University of Strasbourg.[3] 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.[3] Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler were jointly
awarded a half share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries Hoffmann in 2011
concerning the activation of innate immunity,".[4] Born 2 August 1941
[More specifically, the work showing increased Echternach, German-occupied
Drosomycin expression following activation of Toll Luxembourg
pathway in microbial infection.] Nationality French

Hoffmann and Bruno Lemaitre discovered the function Alma mater University of Strasbourg
of the fruit fly Toll gene in innate immunity. Its Awards Balzan Prize (2007)
mammalian homologs, the Toll-like receptors, were Keio Medical Science Prize
discovered by Beutler. Toll-like receptors identify (2010)
constituents of other organisms like fungi and bacteria, Nobel Prize in Physiology or
and trigger an immune response, explaining, for Medicine (2011)
example, how septic shock can be triggered by Gairdner Foundation
bacterial remains.[5][6][7] International Award (2011)
Scientific career
Fields Biology
Education Institutions CNRS, University of
Strasbourg
Jules Hoffmann went to the Lycée de Garçons de
Luxembourg before leaving to France. Hoffmann Doctoral Pierre Joly
received undergraduate degrees in biology and advisor
chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, France. In
1969, he completed his Ph.D. in biology also at the University of Strasbourg under Pierre Joly in
Laboratory of General Biology at the Institute of Zoology.[2] His post-doctoral training was at the Institut
für Physiologische Chemie at Philipps-Universität in Marburg an der Lahn, Germany, in 1973–1974.

Studies and Research Careers

During his Ph.D. program under Pierre Joly, Hoffmann started his research in studying antimicrobial
defenses in grasshoppers, inspired by the previous works done in the laboratory of Pierre Joly showing
that no opportunistic infections were apparent in insects after the transplantation of certain organs from
one to another.[2] Hoffmann confirmed discovery of phagocytosis done by Eli Metchnikoff, through
injection of Bacillus thuringiensis and observation of increase of phagocytes.[2] In addition, he showed
strong correlation between hematopoiesis and antimicrobial defenses by assessing the susceptibility of an
insect to the microbial infection after X-ray treatment.[2] Hoffmann shifts from using grasshopper model
to using dipteran species in the 80s. By using Phormia terranovae, Hoffmann and his colleagues were
able to identify 82-residues long antimicrobial polypeptide named Diptericin which was glycine-rich,
along with other polypeptides in Drosophila melanogaster such as Defensin, Cecropin, and Attacin.[2]
Further molecular genetic analysis revealed that the promoters for the genes encoding these antimicrobial
peptides contained DNA sequences similar to the binding elements for NF-κB in mammalian DNA.
Dorsal gene, critical in dorso-ventral patterning in the early embryo of Drosophila melanogaster was also
identified to be in this NF-κB family. It was initially speculated by Hoffmann and colleagues that activity
of Dorsal was directly linked to the expression of the Diptericin gene. However, it turned out that
Diptericin was normally induced even in the loss-of-function Dorsal mutants. Further conducted research
showed that Diptericin expression was dependent on the expression of imd gene. Identification of another
antifungal peptide named Drosomycin and RNA blots demonstrated that two distinct pathways(Toll, Imd)
exist, involving Drosomycin and Diptericin respectively. Similarities of structure and function between
several members in the Drosophila embryo and members in mammals being noted, study "The
Dorsoventral Regulatory Gene Cassette spätzle/Toll/cactus Controls the Potent Antifungal Response in
Drosophila Adults"[8] by Lemaitre and Hoffmann in 1996 illuminated the possible existing innate
immunity in Drosophila in response to fungal challenge. Later works identified that Toll transmembrane
receptors are present in a wide variety of phyla and are conserved through evolution along with
conservation of NF-κB activating cascades.[2]

Hoffmann was a research assistant at CNRS from 1964 to 1968, and became a research associate in 1969.
Since 1974 he has been a Research Director of CNRS. Between 1978 and 2005 he was Director of the
CNRS research unit "Immune Response and Development in Insects", and from 1994 to 2005 he was
director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of CNRS in Strasbourg.

Hoffmann is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the French Academy of
Sciences, the Academia Europaea, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the United
States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Fondation
Écologie d'Avenir[9] and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Hoffmann became a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2012.[10]

In 2015, Hoffmann signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed
to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate
summit in Paris.[11]

Controversy
Bruno Lemaitre, a research associate in the Hoffmann laboratory at the time when the major work on
Drosophila innate immunity was conducted (for which Hoffmann was awarded the Nobel), claims he was
inadequately recognized by Hoffmann as the instigator of and main contributor to the nobel-winning
work. Lemaitre now supervises his own laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in
Switzerland.[12][13][14]

Awards
2003 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award
2004 Robert Koch Prize
2007 Balzan Prize together with Bruce A. Beutler for
Innate Immunity
2010 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award (shared with Ruslan M.
Medzhitov)
2010 Keio Medical Science Prize
2011 Gairdner Foundation International Award (shared
Hoffmann, Göran K. Hansson
with Shizuo Akira)
(chairman of the Nobel Committee
2011 Shaw Prize (shared with Bruce A. Beutler and for Physiology or Medicine) and
Ruslan M. Medzhitov) Bruce Beutler
2011 CNRS Gold medal
2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with
Bruce Beutler and Ralph M. Steinman)[4]

References
1. "CNRS senior researcher Jules Hoffmann awarded the
2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine" (http://www
2.cnrs.fr/en/1912.htm). French National Centre for
Scientific Research. 3 October 2011. Retrieved
Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler
4 October 2011.
2. "Jules A. Hoffmann – Nobel Lecture: The Host Defense
of Insects: A Paradigm for Innate Immunity" (https://www.
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2011/hof
fmann-lecture.html). Nobelprize.org. 28 November 2013.
Retrieved 29 November 2013.
3. "Jules A. HOFFMANN" (https://web.archive.org/web/201
11005194429/http://www-ibmc.u-strasbg.fr/ridi/profil.ph
p?equipe_id=10&lang=en). UPR9022-IBMC:Immune
Response and Development in Insects. Archived from
the original (http://www-ibmc.u-strasbg.fr/ridi/profil.php?e
quipe_id=10&lang=en) on 5 October 2011. Retrieved
29 November 2013.
 4. "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011" (https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medi
cine/laureates/2011/press.html) (Press release). Nobel Foundation. 3 October 2011.
5. Callaway E (2011). "Nobel announcement marred by winner's death" (https://doi.org/10.103
8%2F478013a). Nature. 478 (7367): 13–4. Bibcode:2011Natur.478...13C (https://ui.adsabs.
harvard.edu/abs/2011Natur.478...13C). doi:10.1038/478013a (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F47
8013a). PMID 21979018 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21979018).
6. Ronald, Pamela; Fauquet, Claude; Zhu, Li-Huang; Zhai, Wen-Xue; Wang, Bei; Gardner, J.;
Holsten, Tom; Pi, Li-Ya; Kim, Han-Suk; Chen, Li-Li; Wang, Guo-Liang; Song, Wen-Yuan (15
December 1995). "A Receptor Kinase-Like Protein Encoded by the Rice Disease
Resistance Gene, Xa21" (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4x0247kj). Science. 270 (5243):
1804–1806. Bibcode:1995Sci...270.1804S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995Sci...270.
1804S). doi:10.1126/science.270.5243.1804 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.270.5243.
1804). ISSN 0036-8075 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0036-8075). PMID 8525370 (http
s://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8525370). S2CID 10548988 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/C
orpusID:10548988).
7. Gomez-Gomez, L.; Boller, Thomas; et al. (2000). "FLS2: an LRR receptor-like kinase
involved in the perception of the bacterial elicitor flagellin in Arabidopsis" (https://doi.org/10.1
016%2FS1097-2765%2800%2980265-8). Molecular Cell. 5 (6): 1003–1011.
doi:10.1016/S1097-2765(00)80265-8 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS1097-2765%2800%2980
265-8). PMID 10911994 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10911994).
8. Lemaitre, B.; Nicolas, E.; Michaut, L.; Reichhart, J. M.; Hoffmann, J. A. (1996). "The
dorsoventral regulatory gene cassette spätzle/Toll/cactus controls the potent antifungal
response in Drosophila adults" (http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/151754). Cell. 86 (6): 973–
983. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80172-5 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0092-8674%2800%
2980172-5). PMID 8808632 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8808632). S2CID 10736743
(https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:10736743).
9. "Fondation Ecologie d'Avenir: Le Conseil d'Orientation" (https://web.archive.org/web/201110
06034618/http://www.fondationecologiedavenir.org/Conseil_Orientation.htm).
www.fondationecologiedavenir.org. Archived from the original (http://www.fondationecologie
davenir.org/Conseil_Orientation.htm) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
10. "Légion d'honneur : 15 promus dans le Bas-Rhin" (http://www.lalsace.fr/actualite/2012/01/0
4/legion-d-honneur-15-promus-dans-le-bas-rhin). L'Alsace. January 4, 2012. Retrieved
December 5, 2016.
11. "Mainau Declaration" (http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/). www.mainaudeclaration.org.
Retrieved 2018-01-11.
12. Travis, John (2011-12-16) Nobel Prize for Immunologists Provokes Yet Another Debate (http
s://www.science.org/content/article/nobel-prize-immunologists-provokes-yet-another-debat
e). sciencemag.org
13. "UPLEM – Lemaitre Lab" (http://lemaitrelab.epfl.ch/).
14. Bruno Lemaitre 2016. Science, narcissism and the quest for visibility.
http://brunolemaitre.ch/narcissism-science/book/

External links
Jules Hoffmann (https://web.archive.org/web/20111005154530/http://www.academie-scienc
es.fr/academie/membre/Hoffmann_Jules.htm) at the French Academy of Sciences
Jules Hoffmann (https://web.archive.org/web/20070810120600/http://www.balzan.com/en/u
eberuns/index.cfm) at the Balzan Foundation
HOW WE SENSE MICROBES: GENETIC DISSECTION OF INNATE IMMUNITY IN
INSECTS AND MAMMALS (https://web.archive.org/web/20081004180543/http://idw-online.
de/pages/de/news237418)
 Jules A. Hoffmann (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/862) on Nobelprize.org

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