Jean-Laurent Casanova
For "the discovery of the human genetic and immunological determinants of infectious diseases"
Read story on Feinberg School of Medicine News Center.
Jean-Laurent Casanova, MD, PhD, the Levy Family Professor at Rockefeller University, pediatrician at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children and Imagine Institute in Paris, and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is known for his discovery of the human genetic and immunological determinants of infectious diseases.
Casanova discovered the rare and common genetic causes of more than 20 severe infections, including severe COVID-19 pneumonia, severe influenza pneumonia, herpes simplex virus encephalitis, tuberculosis and others. His research seeks to identify the genetic causes and immunological mechanisms of infectious diseases, paving the way for strengthening host defense against infection.
Casanova built his research lab around what he calls the “infection enigma,” a problem posed at the turn of the 20th century. He aims to understand why some children and adults develop a life-threatening illness in the course of primary infection, while most people exposed to the same microbe remain unharmed.
His lab, the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, is a French-American lab, split between Rockefeller University and Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris, France. Under Casanova’s leadership, his team has revealed that genetic variants that affect a person’s ability to fight off infectious agents can confer selective vulnerability to a specific severe infectious disease.