Jean-Laurent Casanova - Biography#

Prof. Jean-Laurent Casanova received his M.D. in 1987 and his Ph.D. in 1992, after training at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne. Following a pediatric residency in Paris and a pediatric immunology-hematology fellowship at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children, he was appointed professor at Necker in 1999 and with Laurent Abel, cofounded the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases. Prof. Casanova leads the experimental (wet) lab, whereas Dr. Abel leads the computational (dry) lab. Dr. Casanova was named an international HHMI research scholar from 2005 to 2008, while at Necker. He was appointed professor at the Rockefeller University in 2008 and named HHMI investigator in 2014. He and Dr. Abel maintained their lab in Paris, while running their new lab in NY.

Prof. Casanova is interested in identifying monogenic and digenic disorders that selectively compromise immunity to a single infection in otherwise healthy children and adults. He has identified single-gene inborn errors of immunity that selectively underlie one of a variety of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections, including influenza, tuberculosis, candidiasis, and COVID-19. Revealing such monogenic holes in protective immunity has important clinical implications, in terms of diagnosis and treatment, and has important biological significance, by delineating the essential and redundant functions of human genes in host defense.