Jamel Chelly MD, PhD

Jamel Chelly graduated from the University of Medicine of Sfax, Tunisia. After a doctorate in human genetics at the University of Paris Descartes, he entered the CNRS in 1987. In 1991, with the support of the Cancer Research Foundation, he carried out a three-year post-doctoral internship at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford. Back in France, he created in 1995 at the Cochin Institute the Laboratory of Genetics and Physiopathology of Neurodevelopmental Diseases. With his team, he studies brain malformations and develops projects aimed at identifying genes involved in intellectual disabilities (ID). In order to promote the progress of his research work, he created with other European scientists, the European Consortium on Intellectual Deficiencies (Euro-MRX) which plays a decisive role in many recent discoveries concerning the role of the X chromosome or the neuronal migration disorders. He is a Professor since 2003 at the University of Paris Descartes, he currently heads a research team at the Institut Cochin and a genetic disease diagnostic laboratory at the Cochin Hospital. He will continue his research from next year at the University of Strasbourg and at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology. For all of his contributions, he has received several prestigious awards including the CNRS bronze and silver medals and the 2010 Inserm Research Prize.