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Bruno Reversade

Born in: France
Primary research category: Human Genetics
Research location / employer: GIS & IMCB, A*STAR, Singapore
Fellowship dates: 2006-2011

Academic Career

  • Professor and Research Director, GIS & IMCB (A*STAR, Singapore)
  • Distinguished Professor of Genetics, Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey)
  • Adjunct Professor of Human Genetics, Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands)
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Paediatrics (NUS, Singapore)
  • Joint Scientist in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (Singapore)

———–

  • PhD, Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles (USA) and Universite Pierre & Marie Curie (France), 2006
  • MSc, Biology, Pasteur Institute (France) and Universite Joseph Fourier (France), 2000

Fellowship Research

Prof. Bruno Reversade’s research is focused on uncovering the molecular basis of unusual traits by studying genetic outliers. In simpler terms, his teams will investigate people that that age-prematurely to find drivers of normal human aging or study forms of self-healing cancers that to find innovative therapies. This approach is not confined to deleterious alleles, but also spans the other side of the spectrum: beneficial traits. For instance, as a Branco Weiss Fellow, Prof. Reversade identified a form of hereditary identical twinning, which can be considered as a form of natural reproductive cloning in humans. This has allowed to document a novel signaling pathway that operates in the pre-implantation human embryo to maintain pluripotency. With therapeutic intervention in mind, his teams have made use of extraordinary phenotypes/genotypes to harness the power of the human genome to develop original solutions to unmet medical needs.

Major Contributions

  • Identified the genetic aetiology of numerous Mendelian disorders affecting humans.
  • Harnessed the power of the inflammasome , a branch if the innate immune system, for natural cancer-immunotherapy.
  • Identified novel signaling pathways through the characterization and de-orphanization of Elabela and Reto, two novel hormones.
  • Has substantiated the existence of rare and common variants genetic variants for dizygotic and monozygotic twinning.
  • Has groomed a great number of alumni towards scientific excellence and academic independence.

Major Awards

  • Inaugural A*STAR Investigatorship in Singapore
  • Inaugural AAA fellow in Amsterdam
  • First EMBO YIP based outside Europe
  • Adjunct Professor in Manipal and Bharat Universities (India), NUS (Singapore), Koc University (Turkey), AMC/VuMC (Netherlands)
  • Senior NRF fellow in Singapore