Prof. Saadi Khochbin

Saadi Khochbin, PhD, is the head of a research team and of a department at the CNRS/INSERM/Grenoble-Alpes University Research Centre (Institute for Advanced Biosciences), Grenoble, France. He has dedicated his career to the understanding of how the function of the genome is regulated by its basic organizing elements. His discoveries range from the identification and functional characterization of new enzymes regulating chemical modifications of histones, to histone chemical modifications themselves, histone-binding factors and specific histones variants. In this context, he has developed an original research line on male genome programming, which not only shed light on the obscure, yet fundamental and conserved process of male epigenome establishment, but also generated important new concepts applicable to epigenetics and chromatin biology in general. This research program also led to unexpected applications in cancer biology. Consequently, a new approach to cancer is in development in his laboratory, revealing novel oncogenic mechanisms, powerful biomarkers, as well as pointing to novel therapeutic targets. All this research activity is led on a highly collaborative basis involving leading international groups in a multidisciplinary approach, including structural biology, proteomics, genomics and chemical genomics, as illustrated by the publications from his group reporting collaborative efforts of more than ten independent international laboratories. In 2014, he received the CNRS silver medal in recognition of the originality, quality, and importance of his contribution, and was promoted to the grade of Research Director of Exceptional Class at CNRS.

On November, 2018 Professor Khochbin was presented with the TUMS Distinguished Visiting Professor Title for the duration of 2018-2021 by Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Department, TUMS School of Medicine.