Arnold Munnich

Arnold Munnich (born 9 October 1949, in Paris) is a French paediatrician-geneticist. He is the creator and head of the department of medical genetics at the Necker-Enfants malades hospital in Paris. He was an advisor to the President of the Republic from 2007 to 2012 and a member of the Scientific Council of the AMMi Association.

Scientific background After a doctorate in medicine (1979) and a science thesis (1988) at the Institut Cochin in the U129 unit then headed by Axel Kahn, he was appointed Professor of Genetics at the University of Paris-Descartes in 1989. He has been head of the Inserm unit "Genetic handicaps of the child" since 1990, succeeding Jean Frézal, where he had done his clinic (1986-1990) at the Necker Hospital in Paris.

After Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of the French Republic, Arnold Munnich was appointed Advisor to the President for Biomedical Research and Health.

Arnold Munnich has tried to use molecular genetics in paediatrics and to reconcile clinical and molecular genetics. He is the co-founder and current president of the Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases and a member of the Scientific Council of the AMMi Association.

Distinctions

1994: Jean Hamburger Prize of the City of Paris 1999: Jean-Pierre-Lecocq Prize from the French Academy of Sciences 1999: Eloi-Collery Prize of the National Academy of Medicine 2000: Grand Prix de l'Inserm 2001: Jean Bernard Prize from the Fondation pour la recherche médicale 2003: Member of the Institut Universitaire de France 2004: Member of the French Academy of Sciences 2007: Winner of the European Society of Human Genetics Award 2009: Winner of the Gagna & Van Heck Award of the Belgian National Research Fund 2012: Winner of the British Society of Human Genetics Carter Award 2013: Officier of the Légion d'Honneur 2014: Jean-Bernard Grand Prize of the City of Paris

A 2021 publication found Munnich to be a central researcher for describing rare genetic diseases.

Books

La Rage d'espérer. La génétique au quotidien, Plon Publishing, 1999 Programmé mais libre, Plon Editions, 2016

He is the author or co-author of more than 700 scientific publications.