Raphaël Rodriguez, Institut Curie, Paris, France, has received the Klaus Grohe Prize 2022 from the Klaus Grohe Foundation, which is part of the German Chemical Society (GDCh). The prize is awarded to scientists who have performed excellent work in researching new principles of drug research and whose research results make an important contribution to application. The prize is endowed with EUR 50,000. The award was presented at the International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Nice, France, on September 4, 2022.
Rodriguez receives the award for his pioneering work at the interface between chemistry and biology, combining preparative organic synthesis with molecular and cell biology. For example, he contributed to the development of remodelin, a small molecule that can repair defects in laminopathy cells (which are related to rare genetic disorders) and improve cellular fitness by reducing endogenous levels of DNA damage. He also performed the first chemical syntheses of the complex natural product marmycin and the drug ironomycin, which targets iron metabolism. With his research group, he also elucidated the mechanism of action of salinomycin against cancer stem cells and identified the role of iron in maintaining these cells.
Raphaël Rodriguez was born in Avignon, France, in 1978. He studied chemistry at the Universities of Avignon and Marseille, France. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK, and the University of Marseille. In 2005, he moved to the University of Cambridge, UK, as a postdoctoral researcher, before joining the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in Paris, France, as a group leader in 2012. There, he was appointed Research Director at the Institut Curie in 2017.
Among other honors, Rodriguez has received the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the Prix Lacassagne from the Collège de France, and the Grand Prix Charles Defforey from the Académie des Sciences, all in 2019. He is a scientific co-founder of several companies, including SideROS and Adrestia Therapeutics.
Selected Publications
- Effects of iron modulation on mesenchymal stem cell-induced drug resistance in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer,
Johanna M. Buschhaus, Shrila Rajendran, Brock A. Humphries, Alyssa C. Cutter, Ayşe J. Muñiz, Nicholas G. Ciavattone, Alexander M. Buschhaus, Tatiana Cañeque, Zeribe C. Nwosu, Debashis Sahoo, Avinash S. Bevoor, Yatrik M. Shah, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Pradipta Ghosh, Max S. Wicha, Raphaël Rodriguez, Gary D. Luker,
Oncogene 2022, 41, 3705–3718.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-022-02385-9 - Small Molecule Inhibitors of Interferon‐Induced JAK‐STAT Signalling,
Leishemba K. Thoidingjam, Cédric M. Blouin, Christine Gaillet, Aurélien Brion, Stéphanie Solier, Supaporn Niyomchon, Ahmed El Marjou, Sara Mouasni, Fernando E. Sepulveda, Geneviève de Saint Basile, Christophe Lamaze, Raphaël Rodriguez,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202205231 - CD8+T cell responsiveness to anti-PD-1 is epigenetically regulated by Suv39h1 in melanomas,
Leticia Laura Niborski, Paul Gueguen, Mengliang Ye, Allan Thiolat, Rodrigo Nalio Ramos, Pamela Caudana, Jordan Denizeau, Ludovic Colombeau, Raphaël Rodriguez, Christel Goudot, Jean-Michel Luccarini, Anne Soudé, Bruno Bournique, Pierre Broqua, Luigia Pace, Sylvain Baulande, Christine Sedlik, Jean-Pierre Quivy, Geneviève Almouzni, José L. Cohen, Elina Zueva, Joshua J. Waterfall, Sebastian Amigorena, Eliane Piaggio,
Nat. Commun. 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31504-z - Small-molecule–induced DNA damage identifies alternative DNA structures in human genes,
Raphaël Rodriguez, Kyle M. Miller, Josep V. Forment, Charles R. Bradshaw, Mehran Nikan, Sébastien Britton, Tobias Oelschlaegel, Blerta Xhemalce, Shankar Balasubramanian, Stephen P. Jackson,
Nat. Chem. Biol. 2012, 8, 301–310.
https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEMBIO.780 - A Novel Small Molecule That Alters Shelterin Integrity and Triggers a DNA-Damage Response at Telomeres,
Raphaël Rodriguez, Sebastian Müller, Justin A. Yeoman, Chantal Trentesaux, Jean-François Riou, Shankar Balasubramanian,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 15758–15759.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ja805615w - Salinomycin kills cancer stem cells by sequestering iron in lysosomes,
Trang Thi Mai, Ahmed Hamaï, Antje Hienzsch, Tatiana Cañeque, Sebastian Müller, Julien Wicinski, Olivier Cabaud, Christine Leroy, Amandine David, Verónica Acevedo, Akihide Ryo, Christophe Ginestier, Daniel Birnbaum, Emmanuelle Charafe-Jauffret, Patrice Codogno, Maryam Mehrpour, Raphaël Rodriguez,
Nat. Chem. 2017, 9, 1025–1033.
https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.2778
