François Gros

François Gros (; 24 April 1925 – 18 February 2022) was a French biologist and one of the pioneers of cellular biochemistry in France. His scientific career concerned genes and their role in regulating cellular functions.

Career François Gros studied at the Faculty of Science of the Sorbonne. Previously he had enrolled in error (see below: Personal life) at the Faculty of Sciences in Toulouse. After a junior position at the CNRS he was awarded a Rockefeller grant to study in the laboratory of microbiology of the University of Illinois and in the Rockefeller Institute. He entered the CNRS in 1957 as Maître de Recherche and later as Directeur de Recherche. In this last capacity during 1981 to 1985 he acted as advisor to two Prime Ministers, Pierre Mauroy and Laurent Fabius. Partially as a consequence of this he became involved in the health scandal of contaminated blood (:fr:Affaire du sang contaminé) when many haemophilia patients were transfused with blood containing HIV.

Research

François Gros is best known for his role in the discovery of mRNA and further work on RNA and ribosomes. This was published simultaneously with the report by another group of the same discovery.

Honours Elected correspondent (1977) then member (1979) of the French Academy of Sciences, he was permanent secretary from 1991 to 2000.

He died at the age of 96, also in Paris, on the 18th February 2022. He was married with three children.