Fondation Jean Dausset (CEPH)

Founded in 1984 as the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEP), this foundation was renamed the Fondation Jean Dausset in 1993. Dausset, a world-renowned scientist, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980. Since its inception the foundation has developed essential tools in the genetic and physical mapping of human chromosomes.

During the 1990s the foundation began concentrating on polyfactorial diseases, making a significant contribution to the understanding of the etiology of [Page 670]inflammatory bowel maladies. Through a positional cloning strategy the foundation succeeded in identifying three mutations in a new gene that increases the susceptibility to Crohn's disease.

The foundation is also involved with a large international consortium concentrating on research for susceptibility genes for breast and prostate cancer. In 1991, the Foundation, along with the French Muscular Dystrophy Association, created the Généthon, a nonprofit research institute, in order to provide tools to the scientific community for the localization and cloning of disease determining genes. The Fondation Jean Dausset is headquartered in Paris, France, and each year sponsors a number of meetings and seminars related to the organization's mission.