Claude Prigent

Centre national de la recherche scientifique Morocco

Claude Prigent received his PhD degree in Biology at the University in Rennes 1, France, studying DNA ligases in the laboratory of Pr. Michel Philippe. He then worked on DNA repair mechanisms at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories at South Mimms, London, England, in the laboratory of Pr. Thomas Lindahl. He got a permanent position in the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) just after his postdoc in 1993. He established his own research group in 1996 in Rennes with the main objective on studying the regulation of cell cycle progression by protein kinases with a particular focus on mitosis. His team is also deeply engaged in cancer research trying to understand how deregulated kinases participate in carcinogenesis.

Claude Prigent

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Latest work with IntechOpen by Claude Prigent

Protein phosphorylation reactions are carried out in a cell by protein kinases, which predominantly use ATP as a phosphate donor that is transferred and covalently bound to an amino acid on a substrate protein. Protein phosphorylation was discovered in 1954 by Edmond Fischer who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1992 with Edwin Krebs. There are so many kinases that one was called "Just Another Kinase" for JAK kinase. Their counterpart is protein phosphatases that remove phosphates from phosphorylated proteins. Kinases and phosphatases act as switches in the cell that activates or inactivates protein functions. These reactions are reversible; the cell can quickly react to a situation but can then go back to its initial state.

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