FRÈRE Jean-Marie

Biography

"I have been working on resistance enzymes for more than 40 years", Jean-Marie Frère said, smiling. These words reflect the straightforwardness of his scientific career. As with all researchers for whom questioning is part of life, he has certainly had his moments of doubts. But he has always known what he wanted in life. "It was around Christmas time in my last year of high school, that I decided to study chemistry: I even knew that I wanted to eventually specialize in biochemistry. At that time, though, you had to get an M.Sc. in chemistry first because a biochemistry major was not offered." In his last year of study, two of his professors dissuaded him from doing an extra year in biochemistry. Starting a doctoral program in biochemistry immediately after graduation would save him time. Not only did Professor Frère follow this advice, but he followed his biochemistry teacher, Walter Verly, to the University of Montreal, where the latter had just been appointed Director of the Department of Chemistry. The year was 1964. "This was another era : we did not even know what the genetic code was all about! »

Jean-Marie Frère recalls. He received his Ph.D. in 1969, writing his thesis on nerve transmitters. He then did a year of post-doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. It was there that he developed a passion for enzymes while working with a particular enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of purines that are not only essential components of DNA but also of important small molecules such as ATP. Upon his return to Belgium, he met Professor Jean-Marie Ghuysen who was looking for someone "who knew a little bit about enzymes". Professor Ghuysen¿s team had already isolated two enzymes originally thought to be similar, but subsequently found to differ in one significant way : one was penicillin-resistant, the other not. It was up to Jean-Marie Frère to come up with an explanation for this difference. This was the start of a collaboration which lasted until Jean-Marie Ghuysen's passing in 2004.

Jean-Marie Frère was offered a position as lecturer in 1979 and committed himself thoroughly to the new M.Sc program in Biochemistry. Thanks to his courses, he discovered many talented students who would join the already-existing team at the laboratory. Appointed full professor in 1989, he succeeded Jean-Marie Ghuysen in 1995 as Head of the Centre for Protein Engineering at the University of Liège. These duties have never prevented him from pursuing his research : "I am a fundamentalist at heart : as long as I have an enzyme molecule and a substrate molecule to play with, I am happy." Since 2008, he has been Professor Emeritus.   

He was born in Lodelinsart (Charleroi), spent a large part of his youth in Andenne and completed his Chemistry first degree in Liège where he returned after his research stays in Montreal and Boston.

He is a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique and was Directot of the Classe des Sciences in 2018 and 2019.