Marc Tessier-Lavigne is Senior Vice President, Research Drug Discovery, at Genentech. He and his colleagues have pioneered the identification of molecules, including the Netrin and Slit proteins, that direct the formation of connections among nerve cells to establish neuronal circuits in the mammalian brain and spinal cord. The mechanisms he has identified are important for understanding how the human brain forms during normal development and provide essential tools to assist regeneration of nerve connections following trauma or injury, such as paralyzing injuries to the spinal cord.

Tessier-Lavigne was born in Trenton, Canada. He received a B.Sc. in physics from McGill University and a B.A. in philosophy and physiology from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He obtained his Ph.D. in physiology from University College London and performed postdoctoral work at the MRC Developmental Neurobiology Unit in London and at Columbia University where he was a Markey Scholar. From 1991 to 2001 he was on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, and from 2001-2003 he was the Susan B. Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. He was also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1994 to 2003.  In 2003, he assumed his current position at Genentech, in which he oversees some 600 people in disease research, translational medicine, and drug discovery in cancer, neurology, metabolism, and tissue growth and repair, while also maintaining an active research lab focused on mechanisms of axon guidance and regeneration.

Tessier-Lavigne serves on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, including the board of reviewing editors of Science magazine. He is the recipient or co-recipient of numerous awards, including the Charles Judson Herrick Award of the American Association of Anatomists, the Ameritec Prize for contributions towards a cure for paralysis, the Fondation Ibsen Prize in Neuronal Plasticity, the Young Investigator Award of the Society for Neuroscience, the Viktor Hamburger Award of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience, the Wakeman Award for regeneration research, and the Robert Dow Neuroscience Award.

In recognition of his scientific contributions, Tessier-Lavigne has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

To read more about Dr. Tessier-Lavigne, see his profile in Nature Medicine (January 2004, p. 10).

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