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| Biography of Richard Gieg谷 |
 Richard Gieg谷 was born 1942 in Strasbourg. After graduation in 1964 in Chemistry/Physics and Biochemistry at University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, he started under the supervision of J-P Ebela doctoral thesis (Th豕se d'Etat) on the recognition specificity of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) obtained with honors in 1972.This was a hot topic in the Golden Age of molecular biology, and still is. He got a permanent position at CNRS in 1966, and since then has pursued his scientific career in Strasbourg (at the CNRS "Institut de Biologie Mol谷culaire et Cellulaire" in close partnership with the University), except for a leave in 1973-74 at MIT in the laboratory of Alex Rich.
After return to IBMC, R Gieg谷, with the support of his mentor J-P Ebel, progressively created a research Department devoted to investigate the structure/function relationships in tRNA molecules, the mediators of correct expression of genetic code in proteins. All his research and academic activities were guided by the wish to understand the key position of tRNAs and their partners in biology. For that multidisciplinary approaches combining physics, chemistry, biochemistry, enzymology and molecular biology were needed. Thus, besides basic research in the field of translation, R Gieg谷 developed in parallel appropriate methodological tools and established fruitful collaborations with local and foreign colleagues that had the same interests.
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Furthermore, R Gieg谷 was strongly involved in a teaching program at Universit谷 Louis Pasteur (the Magist豕re Chimie-Biologie)aimed to give an interdisciplinary education to pre-doctoral students and was organizeror teacher atmany Courses/Schools, all around the world, on molecular and structural biology,to introduce doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to advanced methods of structural RNA probing or tocrystallogenesis of biomacromolecules [as illustrated by several dedicated publications, such as a book on the "Crystallization of Nucleic Acids and Proteins" (Ducruix & Gieg谷) published 1992 in the Practical Approach Series by Oxford Press and re-edited in 1999, and a monograph on "Classical and Novel Chemical Tools for RNA Structure Probing" (Gieg谷, Helm & Florentz) in RNA, a book published by Elsevier Science in 2001].
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He organized also scientific meetings and was an active member in many advisory boards, in particular to promote the new field of crystallogenesis, a term he coined. Many foreign senior scientists were visiting scientists in the laboratory of R Gieg谷 and altogether, about 50 researchers prepared a PhD under his supervision or were post-doc with him, and many of them became distinguished scientists in Academia or in Industry (in Strasbourg and elsewhere in France,as well as abroad in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, USA, Japan...).
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The research interests and chief achievements of R Gieg谷 (as appears in his ~380 papers)touch firstthe basic understandingonthe identity of tRNAs, in other wordsthe rules that govern their aminoacylation specificity and thereby the correct expression of the genetic codeand the implications of the dysfunctionof tRNA aminoacylation systems in terms of global biology and evolution. They concernalso applied topics aimed to establish new methods for studying RNAs or RNA/protein complexes or to understand the mechanisms of biomacromolecular crystallization and the behavior of proteins under crystallizationand pre-crystallization conditions.For his dedication in research, R Gieg谷 was distinguished by a Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1992, was elected member of EMBO in 1995 and received in 2004the medal of the French Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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Below is a selection of significant results given in chronological order, with bibliographic references highlighting the names of the main co-workers:
Concept of kinetic specificity for the aminoacylation of tRNAs
[Ebel, Gieg谷, Bonnet, Kern, Befort, Bollack, Fasiolo, Gangloff & Dirheimer (1973) Biochimie 55:547每57]
Direct demonstration (by Raman spectroscopy) of the conformational similarity of a biomacromolecule in solution and in crystalline state, with the example of yeast tRNAPhe
[Chen, Lord, Gieg谷 & Rich (1975) Biochemistry 14:4385每91]
Crystals diffracting at high resolution of yeast tRNAAsp and resolution of the structure of this tRNA in coll. with D. Moras
[Moras, Comarmond, Fischer, Weiss, Thierry, Ebel & Gieg谷 (1980) Nature 288:669每74]
Valylation kinetics and organization of the tRNA-like domain of TYMV RNAs
[Florentz, Briand, Romby, Hirth, Ebel & Gieg谷 (1982) EMBO J 1, 269每276]
First crystallization of tRNA/aaRS complex, that between tRNAAsp and AspRS from yeast
[Gieg谷, Lorber, Ebel, Moras & Thierry (1980) C R Acad Sci Paris D2 291:393每396]
Conceptualization of the primordial role of purity (chemical & conformational) in biocrystallogenesis
[Gieg谷, Dock, Kern, Lorber, Thierry & Moras (1986) J Crystal Growth 76:554每61]
Conformational change in tRNAAsp induced by anticodon/anticodon contacts, even in crystal
[Moras, Dock, Dumas, Westhof, Romby, Ebel & Gieg谷 (1986) PNAS 83:932每6]
First experiment-based modeling of an RNA molecule, the tRNA-like domain from TYMV
[Dumas, Moras, Florentz, Gieg谷, Verlaan, Van Belkum & Pleij (1987) J Biomol Struct Dyn 4:707每28]
Crystallization diagnostic of proteins by light scattering
[Mikol, Hirsch & Gieg谷 (1990) JMB 213:187每95]
Identity elements for yeast tRNAAsp charging
[P邦tz, Puglisi, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1991) Science 252:1696每9]
Anticodon-independent valylation of an RNA minihelix
[Frugier, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1992) PNAS 89:3900每4]
Engineering the structure and function of yeast tRNAAsp
[Puglisi, P邦tz, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1993) NAR 21:41每9]
Operational RNA code for amino acids and possible relationship to genetic code: an HFSP collaboration
[Schimmel, Gieg谷, Moras & Yokoyama (1993) PNAS 90:8763每8]
An example of a novel RNA cleaving reagent that mimics RNase A
[Podyminogin, Vlassov & Gieg谷 (1993) NAR 21:5950-6]
Relaxation of a tRNA specificity by removal of a modified nucleoside
[Perret, Garcia, Grosjean, Ebel, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1994) Nature 344:787每9]
Demonstration that efficient aminoacylation of resected minihelices by yeast AspRS is dependent on the sole discriminator nucleoside
[Frugier, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1994) EMBO J 13:2218每26]
Characterization of antideterminants in tRNASec preventing its recognition by classical elongation factor
[Rudinger, Hillenbrandt, Sprinzl & Gieg谷 (1996) EMBO J 15:650每7]
Discovery of idiosyncratic arginine identity features in tRNA anticodon loop
[Sissler, Florentz & Gieg谷 (1996) EMBO J 15:5069每76]
The first visualization of the surface of an RNA crystal by Atomic Force Microscopy
[Ng, Kuznetsov, Malkin, Keith, Gieg谷 & McPherson (1997) NAR 25:2582每8]
Design of resected RNA pseudoknots recognized by HisRS
[Felden & Gieg谷 (1998) PNAS 95: 10431 6]
Universal rules and idiosyncrasies in tRNA identity
[Gieg谷, Sissler & Florentz (1998) NAR 26:5017每35]
Concept of intramolecular chaperone: a methyl group is sufficient for cloverleaf folding of human mitochondrial tRNALys
[Helm, Gieg谷 & Florentz (1999) Biochemistry 38:1338每46]
Impurities and crystal perfection
[Robert, Capelle, Lorber & Gieg谷 (2001) J Crystal Growth 232:489-97]
A better structure of AspRS obtained with crystals grown in microgravity
[Ng, Sauter, Lorber, Kirkland, Arnez & Gieg谷 (2002) Acta CrystD58:645每52]
Structural and functional differences in a non-discriminating AspRS as compared to a discriminating AspRS
[Charron, Roy, Blaise, Gieg谷 & Kern (2003) EMBO J 22:1632每43]
Structure and functional properties of a tRNA-like structure in the mRNA of yeast AspRS
[Ryckelynck, Masquida, Gieg谷 & Frugier (2005) JMB 354:614每29]
The first crystal structure of a human mitochondrial aaRS, mt-TyrRS
[Bonnefond, Frugier, Lorber, Touz谷, Florentz, Gieg谷, Sauter & Rudinger-Thirion (2007) Structure 15:1505每16]
Perspectives towards a more complete view of tRNA biology
[Gieg谷 (2008)Nat Struct Mol Biol 15:1007每14]
Demonstration that agarose gel facilitates soaking of aaRS crystals with ligand analogs
[Sauter, Balg, Moreno, Dhouib, Th谷obald-Dietrich, Ch那nevert, Gieg谷 & Lorber (2009) J Applied Cryst 42:279每83]
A rationalization of conserved and variable structural features in the tRNA World, with emphasis to structural plasticity
[Gieg谷, J邦hling, P邦tz, Stadler, Sauter & Florentz (2011) WIREs RNA in press]
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