2806:370:4360:8173:C05C:6DFF:FE57:5C5A: /* Research */

2025-04-16T22:03:46Z

Research

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{{Short description|French endocrinologist (1916–1991)}}
{{for|the German inventor and entrepreneur|Alfred Jost (inventor)}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Alfred Jost
|image =
|image_size =150px
|caption = Alfred Jost
|birth_date = 27 July 1916
|birth_place = [[Strasbourg]]
|death_date = 3 February 1991
|death_place =
|residence = |citizenship =
|nationality = [[French people|French]]
|ethnicity =
|field = [[Endocrinology]]
|work_institutions = [[Collège de France]]
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[anti-Müllerian hormone]]
|author_abbrev_bot =|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences =
|influenced =
|prizes =
|religion = |footnotes = |signature =
}}'''Alfred Jost''' (1916–1991) was a [[French people|French]] [[Endocrinology|endocrinologist]], and an early researcher in the field of fetal endocrinology.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4VOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA168 |year=1989 |publisher=Karger |page=168}}</ref> He is known for his discovery of the Müllerian inhibitor, now called [[anti-Müllerian hormone]] (AMH) or Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS).<ref name="MatzukBrown2001">{{cite book |author1=Martin Matzuk |author2=Chester W. Brown |author3=T. Rajendra Kumar |title=Transgenics in Endocrinology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXz1BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 |date=15 August 2001 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-59259-102-2 |pages=42–}}</ref> His research demonstrated how hormones affect the development of male and female sex characteristics.<ref name="Reed2012">{{cite book |author=Lori Reed |title=Governing the Female Body: Gender, Health, and Networks of Power |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LM3DGsfHXCAC&pg=PA277 |date=1 February 2012 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2954-0 |pages=277–}}</ref>

==Career==
Jost was a professor at the University of Paris, and was head of the Department of Comparative Physiology there in 1972.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Johns Hopkins Medical Journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=noRMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA37 |year=1972 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press |pages=37–38}}</ref> Jost was known for applying surgical methods to fetal endocrinology. He also taught many pre-doctoral students.

==Research==
During the 1950s and 1960s Jost studied the mechanism of somatic [[sex differentiation]];<ref name="Becker2002">{{cite book |author=Jill B. Becker |title=Behavioral Endocrinology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6TnKbTRBJoC&pg=PA77 |year=2002 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52321-9 |page=77}}</ref> his research showed that male characteristics must be imposed on the fetus by the testicular hormones testosterone and AMH,<ref name="Kappy(M.D.)2005">{{cite book |author1=Michael Steven Kappy |author2=David B. Allen (M.D.) |author3=Mitchell E. Geffner |title=Principles and Practice of Pediatric Endocrinology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlqcQ0WhU_kC&pg=PA490 |year=2005 |publisher=Charles C Thomas Publisher |isbn=978-0-398-07554-5 |page=490}}</ref><ref name="Becker2002"/>
and that in the absence or inactivity of these hormones, the fetus becomes phenotypically female.<ref name="MelmedPolonsky2015">{{cite book |author1=Shlomo Melmed |author2=Kenneth S. Polonsky |author3=P. Reed Larsen |author4=Henry Kronenberg |title=Williams Textbook of Endocrinology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YZ8_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA903 |date=30 November 2015 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=978-0-323-29738-7 |page=903}}</ref>However, this has been discredited by recent studies.<ref name="JohnsHopkinsMedicine">{{cite web |url=https://biomedicalodyssey.blogs.hopkinsmedicine.org/2017/09/its-hard-work-being-a-boy-and-it-turns-out-a-girl/ |date=15 Dec 2024 |title=It’s Hard Work Being a Boy (and, It Turns Out, a Girl)}}</ref><ref name="Science">{{cite web |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aai9136 |date=15 Dec 2024 |title=Elimination of the male reproductive tract in the female embryo is promoted by COUP-TFII in mice}}</ref>

Jost also studied testicular differentiation, in collaboration with Solange Magre. He was the first to show that testicular organization is heralded by the development of pre-Sertoli cells, which progressively surround germ cells to form [[seminiferous tubule]]s.

== Death ==
He died February 3, 1991, at age 75,<ref name="Bardin2014">{{cite book |author=C. Wayne Bardin |title=Recent Progress in Hormone Research: Proceedings of the 1991 Laurentian Hormone Conference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ez-aBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |date=10 May 2014 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-1-4832-1968-4 |page=1}}</ref> having retired from the [[Collège de France]], but still active as the Secrétaire Perpétuel of the [[French Academy of Sciences]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite journal |author=Josso N |title=Professor Alfred Jost: the builder of modern sex differentiation |journal=Sex Dev |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=55–63 |year=2008 |pmid=18577872 |doi=10.1159/000129690 |s2cid=26022942 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jost, Alfred}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:French endocrinologists]]
[[Category:French sexologists]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:20th-century French physicians]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]

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{{Biologist-stub}}

Alfred Jost - Revision history

2806:370:4360:8173:C05C:6DFF:FE57:5C5A: /* Research */