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Jacques Ricard

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Not to be confused with Jacques Richard (ice hockey player).
Jacques Ricard
Jacques Ricard in Lourmarin, June 2005
Born(1929-08-06)6 August 1929
Marseille, France
Died28 December 2018(2018-12-28) (aged 89)
Le Nayrac, Aveyron, France
EducationAix-Marseille University; the Sorbonne (Thèse d'État, 1957)
SpouseKatharina (Käty)
Children1 son: Philippe
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysics of enzymes
InstitutionsLa Sorbonne; Cornell University; Aix-Marseille University; CNRS, Marseille; Institut Jacques Monod, Paris; University Paris Diderot
Academic advisorsGeorges Teissier

Jacques Ricard (6 August 1929 – 28 December 2018),[1] was a French biophysicist known for studies of plant enzymes and for developing the concept of enzyme memory.

Personal life

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Jacques Ricard was born on 6 August 1929 in Marseille,[2] where he spent his early life and education. After retirement he lived in Lourmarin, in the Vaucluse at the edge of the Luberon,[3] and he died in Le Nayrac, Aveyron on 28 December 2018.[2] He married Katharina (Käty), philosopher of science and author of Penser la Vie.[4] They had one son, Philippe, a cardiologist.

Education

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Ricard studied mathematics and biology at Aix-Marseille University and the Sorbonne (Thèse d'État, 1957).[5]

Career

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Ricard started his career as a young researcher in statistics in the laboratory of Georges Teissier at the Sorbonne.[6] After a postdoctoral period at Cornell University[2] he moved to Aix-Marseille University, where he was a lecturer and later professor of plant biochemistry. At the university he created and directed a CNRS laboratory in plant biology, later directing the CNRS Centre for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, also in Marseille.[6] Subsequently he moved to Paris as director of the Jacques Monod Institute, associated with the Université Paris-Diderot and the CNRS.[6] He retired in 1999, but remained active to the end of his life,[5] as exemplified by his book[7] in which he explained why the whole is more than the sum of its parts.[8] followed by another book on a similar theme published towards the end of his life.[9]

Research

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During the first part of his career Ricard's research was dedicated to the study of enzymes involved in plant metabolism, including yeast hexokinase,[10][11] a collaboration with R. J. P. Williams on turnip peroxidases,[12] and other work on peroxidases.[13]

A long-term interest in allosteric and cooperative behaviour led to a retrospective review two decades after the principal models of cooperativity were established.[14]

The study of yeast hexokinase[10][11] led to what became a major interest, the development of the "mnemonical model“[15] as an example of enzyme memory,[16] later extended to multienzyme systems,[17][18][19] following a discovery that five enzymes of the Calvin cycle existed as a complex in chloroplasts.[20]

In the light of his textbook[21] he became a member of the panel that prepared the current IUBMB recommendations on enzyme kinetics.[22]

In 1983 Ricard organized, with Athel Cornish-Bowden, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Marseille on Dynamics of Biochemical Systems in which several notable scientists participated: Keith Dalziel, Albert Goldbeter, Mario Markus, Peter Schuster.[23]

After his formal retirement Ricard became increasingly interested in applying his training in mathematics to general questions of complexity[7][24][25] and the origin and definition of life.[9][26][27]

Honours

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Jacques Ricard was elected corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in 1990, in the section of integrative biology.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "In memoriam Jacques Ricard". Académie des Sciences.
  2. ^ a b c "Ricard Jacques". Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques.
  3. ^ "Jacques Ricard". Rencontres scientifiques Jacques Ricard.
  4. ^ Ricard, K. (1990). Penser la Vie. Desclée de Brouwer. ISBN 978-2220031583.
  5. ^ a b "Hommage à Jacques Ricard". Société Française de Biologie Végétale.
  6. ^ a b c "Hommage à Jacques Ricard". Institut des sciences biologiques du CNRS.
  7. ^ a b Ricard, J. (2008). Pourquoi le Tout est plus que la somme de ses parties. Pour une approche scientifique de l'émergence. Hermann, Paris. ISBN 9782705667375.
  8. ^ This is an important idea in the current move away from reductionism, especially in systems biology,
  9. ^ a b Ricard, J. (2014). Biological Systems: Complexity and Artificial Life. Bentham Books, Soest (The Netherlands). ISBN 978-1-60805-813-6.
  10. ^ a b Noat, G.; Ricard, J.; Borel, M.; Got, C. "Kinetic study of yeast hexokinase inhibition of the reaction by magnesium and ATP". Eur. J. Biochem. 13 (2): 347–363. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1970.tb00937.x.
  11. ^ a b Ricard, J.; Noat, G.; Got, C.; Borel, M. "The theory of alternative substrates in enzyme kinetics and its application to yeast hexokinase". Eur. J. Biochem. 31 (1): 14–24. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1972.tb02494.x.
  12. ^ Ricard, J.; Mazza, G.; Williams, R. J. P. (1972). "Oxidation-reduction potentials and ionization states of two turnip peroxidases". Eur. J. Biochem. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1972.tb01945.x.
  13. ^ Penon, P.; Cecchini, J.-P.; Miassod, R.; Ricard, J.; Teissère, M.; Pinna, M.-H. "Peroxidases associated with lentil root ribosomes". Phytochemistry. 28 (4): 566–578. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)86617-0.
  14. ^ Ricard, J.; Cornish-Bowden, A. (1987). "Co-operative and allosteric enzymes: 20 years on". Eur. J. Biochem. 166 (2): 255–272. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1987.tb13510.x.
  15. ^ Ricard, J.; Meunier, J.-C.; Buc, J. (1974). "Regulatory behavior of monomeric enzymes. 1. The mnemonical enzyme concept". Eur. J. Biochem. 49 (1): 195–208. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1974.tb03825.x.
  16. ^ Ricard, J.; Buc, J.; Meunier, J.-C. (1977). "Enzyme memory. 1. A transient kinetic study of wheat-germ hexokinase LI". Eur. J. Biochem. 80 (2): 581–592. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1977.tb11915.x.
  17. ^ Avilan, L.; Gontero, B.; Lebreton, S.; Ricard, J. (2004). "Memory and imprinting effects in multienzyme complexes. I. Isolation, dissociation, and reassociation of a phosphoribulokinase–glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase complex from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplasts". Eur. J. Biochem. 246 (1): 78–84. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1997.00078.x.
  18. ^ Ricard, J.; Giudici-Orticoni, M.-T.; Gontero, B. (1994). "The modulation of enzyme reaction rates within multi-enzyme complexes. 1. Statistical thermodynamics of information transfer through multi-enzyme complexes". Eur. J. Biochem. 226 (3): 993–998. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1994.00993.x.
  19. ^ Gontero, B.; Giudici-Orticoni, M.-T.; Ricard, J. (1994). "The modulation of enzyme reaction rates within multi-enzyme complexes. 2. Information transfer within a chloroplast multi-enzyme complex containing ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase". Eur. J. Biochem. 226 (3): 999–1006. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1994.00999.x.
  20. ^ Gontero, B.; Cárdenas, M. L.; Ricard, J. (1988). "A functional five-enzyme complex of chloroplasts involved in the Calvin cycle". Eur. J. Biochem. 173 (2): 437–443. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1988.tb14018.x.
  21. ^ Ricard, J. (1973). Cinétique et mécanismes d'action des enzymes. 1, Cinétique enzymatique phénoménologique. Doin, Paris.
  22. ^ Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry (NC-IUB) (1982). "Symbolism and terminology in enzyme kinetics. Recommendations 1981". Eur. J. Biochem. 128: 281–291. PMID 7151780. NC-IUB thanks the panel, whose members were A. Cornish-Bowden (U.K., convener). H. B. F. Dixon (U.K.), K. J. Laidler (Canada), I. H. Segel (USA), J. Ricard (France), S. F. Velick (USA), and E. C. Webb (Australia), for drafting these recommendations.
  23. ^ Ricard, Jacques; Cornish-Bowden, Athel, eds. (1984). Dynamics of Biochemical Systems. Plenum, New York. ISBN 0-306-41830-4.
  24. ^ Ricard, J. (2004). "Reduction, integration and emergence in biochemical networks". Biol. Cell. 96 (9): 719–725. doi:10.1016/j.biolcel.2004.07.003.
  25. ^ Ricard, J. (2006). Emergent collective properties, networks and information in biology. Elsevier.
  26. ^ Ricard, J. (2010). "Systems biology and the origins of life? Part I. Are biochemical networks possible ancestors of living systems? Reproduction, identity and sensitivity to signals of biochemical networks". Comptes Rendus. Biologies. 333 (11–12): 761-768. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2010.10.003.
  27. ^ Ricard, J. (2010). "Systems biology and the origins of life? Part II. Are biochemical networks possible ancestors of living systems? Networks of catalysed chemical reactions: Non-equilibrium, self-organization and evolution". Comptes Rendus. Biologies. 333 (11–12): 769-778. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2010.10.004.
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