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L'analyse politique d'Hubert Coudurier

European cystic fibrosis conference

Prof. Claude Férec. « Recognition »

28 mai 2009 à 13h43

If Claude Férec had not come to Brest in the early 1980s, this European conference would never have been held at the tip of Brittany. A look back on the career of a researcher as modest as he is a voracious worker.

What was your training ?
I started out by doing pharmacy, however, I could not see myself spending all my life behind a counter. After I qualified, I then continued in medicine while preparing a thesis in science. I wanted to do research, to make developments and progress. Molecular genetics was a new field which opened up with the discovery in 1982 of the HLA and then the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene.
The head of the blood transfusion association in Brest, Jean-Paul Saleün, knew Jean Dausset, the Noble prize winner, who encouraged him to take an interest in this field. This opportunity enabled me to create the molecular biology laboratory in Brest after training in Paris. Back then everything was a little esoteric and very few laboratories worked on this theme.

And why cystic fibrosis ?
Everything started from a meeting with Bernard Laurent, the father of a sick child who wanted research to be done on cystic fibrosis, which is particularly common in Brittany and is the most frequent serious genetic disease among children. I made contact with Dr. Jehanne in Roscoff, the reference in taking care of these children, who put me in contact with families. In addition, I had already started to take blood samples, particularly in the farms of the Léon region. Families withdrawn into themselves regarded this completely unknown disease as a malediction. It was still taboo back then. However they all accepted giving a blood sample.

The discovery of the gene roused great hope, did it not ?
In 1986 and 1987, we were racing after the cystic fibrosis gene, as were all research laboratories. Finally, in September 1989, a Canadian team was the first one to succeed in pinpointing the gene on the 7th chromosome. It was similar to a yacht race, we were all sailing alongside after miles of racing. A consortium was then created to pool all the new data on this gene. We were surprised when we observed its variability, the large number of different mutations in the gene, giving rise to different manifestations of the disease among patients. In Brest, we revealed 250 of the 1.600 different mutations of the gene.
At the time, we were certainly fishing optimistically, we felt that things would start moving fast with this discovery.

What part played the Télégramme operation in 1990 ?
We were able to make people aware of cystic fibrosis and of our laboratory, and financially we were able to recruit research engineers and start building a team oriented towards gene therapy. In 1994, when the laboratory was threatened to close down, due to transfusion problems, people knew about us and 60.000 signatures were collected in a few days. Thanks to the Gaétan Saleün association (*) which allowed the laboratory to continue to develop.

What does this conference represent ?
The fact that this 32nd conference is being held in Brest, when normally it takes place in European capitals, is in itself a recognition of our work, but also of all the families and voluntary workers who have rallied round for years to raise funds. We will also be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the gene’s discovery in the presence of the team who discovered it.

* Association Gaétan Saleün, 29 rue Félix Le Dantec 29200 Brest.
Tél. 02.98.33.70.14.
association-g.saleun@wanadoo.fr