Press Release No. 5
Berlin
CEPH and Genethon - French Genome Research
In France, there has never been national policy of human genome research. Instead, the Nobel Prize winner Jean Dausset and Daniel Cohen, at that time Dausset's assistant, started their own, privately financed project by founding the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humaine (CEPH) in 1982. They set up an extensive collection of genetic material (DNA) from families with several members which may be used free of charge by genecists from all over the world.