Étienne-Émile Baulieu

Baulieu was born Émile Blum to Jewish parents in Strasbourg, France.{{cite magazine |first=Lauren |last=Collins |url=https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/emile-baulieu-the-complicated-life-of-the-abortion-pill |title=The Complicated Life of the Abortion Pill |magazine=The New Yorker |date=5 July 2022 |access-date=6 July 2022 }} His father, who died when he was four was Léon Blum, a physician, and an early specialist in diabetes. Baulieu changed his name during World War II when his family fled to the area near Grenoble and he engaged in the French resistance.{{cite news |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2007/08/17/etienne-emile-baulieu-monsieur-longue-vie_945241_3244.html |title=Etienne-Emile Baulieu: monsieur "longue vie" |trans-title=Etienne-Emile Baulieu: Mr. 'Long Life' |work=Le Monde |date=17 August 2007 |language=fr |first= Sandrine |last=Blanchard }} After the war he attended the Faculté de Médecine de Paris and became a doctor of medicine in 1955. He studied further under his mentor Max Fernand Jayle in the field of steroid hormones and obtained his PhD degree in 1963 at the Lycée Pasteur, Faculté de Médecine and Faculté des Sciences in Paris.

In 1963 Baulieu was named director of INSERM, and in 1970 he became a Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of Bicêtre, affiliated with University of Paris-South. Since 2004 Baulieu is a member of the French "Ethical Advisory Committee" (Comité consultatif national d'éthique) for science and health. He is also associated with the "Institute of Longevity and Aging" [L'Institut de la longévité, des vieillesses et du vieillissement].{{cite web |url=https://www.ilvv.fr/ |title=L'Institut de la longévité, des vieillesses et du vieillissement |trans-title=The Institute of Longevity, Old Age and Aging |language=fr |access-date=January 18, 2023 |quote=An institute to learn about and publicize French research in the humanities and social sciences on aging }} In 2008, he started the Institut Baulieu to foster research into healthy longevity.{{cite web |url=http://institut-baulieu.org/linstitut/ |title=Institut Baulieu, description of the Institute |language=French |quote=Research conducted in the field of age-related brain disorders still suffers from a knowledge gap. It is for this purpose that the Baulieu Institute was created in June 2008 by Professor Etienne-Emile Baulieu. |access-date=January 18, 2023}}

Baulieu has had an ongoing interest in dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). In 1960 he demonstrated that DHEA was the main adrenal androgen, was largely conjugated as a hydrophilic sulfate, and described its metabolism and functions. He worked to uncover the production of estrogens by the placenta during pregnancy and this led to the concept of DHEA being a "prohormone". Upon the invitation of Seymour Lieberman Baulieu became visiting scientist at the Columbia University in 1961–1962, and during this time he met Gregory Pincus, the father of the "birth control pill". Baulieu then turned to more studies in contraception and in the regulation of fertility and pregnancy. He became a pioneer in the description of intracellular sex steroid receptors and identified major intracellular participants such as the heat shock proteins. He worked on the progesterone receptor and androgen receptor. While steroid receptors are generally found within the cell, Baulieu identified a membrane receptor for a steroid hormone in Xenopus laevis.

Baulieu discovered that DHEA and pregnenolone are produced in the brain and introduced the term "neurosteroids" in 1981.{{cite journal|title=Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) as neuroactive neurosteroids |author=Etienne-Emile Baulieu |author2=Paul Robel |name-list-style=amp |journal=PNAS | pmid=9539693| year=1998| volume=95| issue=8| pages=4089–91| pmc=34265 | doi=10.1073/pnas.95.8.4089|bibcode = 1998PNAS...95.4089B |doi-access=free }} These steroids are active in the nervous system, help repair myelin, protect the nervous system, and enhance memory. Such agents may prove to be useful in the maintenance of brain function during age, and Baulieu suggests that use of DHEA in the elderly may ameliorate certain age-associated deficits including memory loss and depressive mood.{{cite web |url=http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/main.asp?intSubSectionID=3421|

author=Baulieu EE| title=Closing Keynote:Aging and Hormones |publisher=NY Academy of Science|

accessdate=2009-01-22}} Baulieu conducts clinical research about the potential benefits of DHEA in the elderly population.{{cite journal|title=Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), DHEA sulfate, and aging: Contribution of the DHEAge Study to a sociobiomedical issue| vauthors=Baulieu EE, Thomas G, Legrain S, Lahlou N, Roger M, Debuire B, Faucounau V, Girard L, Hervy MP, Latour F, Leaud MC, Mokrane A, Pitti-Ferrandi H, Trivalle C, de Lacharrière O, Nouveau S, Rakoto-Arison B, Souberbielle JC, Raison J, Le Bouc Y, Raynaud A, Girerd X, Forette F | name-list-style=amp |journal=PNAS |date=April 2000| pmid=10760294| volume=97| issue=8| pages=4279–84| pmc=18228| doi=10.1073/pnas.97.8.4279|bibcode = 2000PNAS...97.4279B | doi-access=free }}

Baulieu is worldwide known for his work on RU486 (Mifepristone) and has been termed the "Father" of the abortion pill.{{cite journal |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/290/5489/39| author=Michael Balter |title=Profile. For "Father" of Abortion Drug, Vindication at Last| journal=Science |date=October 6, 2000| issn = 0036-8075| pmid = 11183145 |doi=10.1126/science.290.5489.39 |volume=290 |issue=5489 |pages=39| s2cid=43134849 }} Baulieu who had identified the progesterone receptor suggested to Roussel-Uclaf to modify the progesterone molecule to create an anti-progesterone.{{cite journal |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6DF1431F931A25751C0A96F948260| author=Greenhouse S |title=A New Pill, A Fierce Battle |journal=The New York Times | pages=22–24, 26 |date=February 12, 1989| pmid=11646197 }} Georges Teutsch then synthesized an agent that became initially known as RU468 in 1980. Baulieu investigated the actions of this agent as an anti-progesterone steroid that proved to be able to induce early abortion and became more effective in conjunction with misoprostol. As a proponent of a nonsurgical approach to abortion Baulieu became an advocat RU468 even when the company withdrew from the product and propelled him into the limelight of the abortion debate.{{cite journal |last=Smolowe | first=Jill | date=June 1993| title=New, Improved and Ready for Battle| journal=Time | volume=141 | issue=24 | pages=48–51 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978693,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028021002/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,978693,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 28, 2010 | accessdate=2009-01-22| pmid=11656232 }} As an anti-progesterone RU468 also has other potential such as in the treatment of certain conditions (breast cancer, brain cancer, endometriosis, diabetes, hypertension), and the anti-cortison activity he discovered may be useful to manage depression or Cushing's syndrome.

Baulieu has taken increasingly more interest in what he has called the "longevity revolution", that people are living longer, and its implications.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cx_B52GfO8cC&pg=PA89 |author=Baulieu EE |chapter=In Year 2000: Aging, the Forgotten Revolution. Will DHEA Help Us? |editor1= Butler RN|editor2=Jasmin C.|title= Longvity and Quality of Life: Opportunity and Challenges |publisher=Springer|page=89 |isbn=978-0-306-46315-0 |date=2000-04-30}} As part of this, he is investigating the potential of hormonal substitution such as DHEA to increase well-being in old age. The "Institute Baulieu" was started in 2008 to address issues that are detrimental to health in older people. One focus of research in the 2020 decade is finding ways to decrease the problems of the elderly as to functioning independently.{{cite web |url=http://institut-baulieu.org/enjeu-national/ |language=fr |title=Institut Baulieu, Le vieillissement, une question d'avenir |trans-title=Baulieu Institute, Aging, a question of the future |location=Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France |quote=Two action strategies should be considered: • prevent the progression of the disease in those affected, and delay the moment of their dependence. • detect people at risk, with no symptoms, to prevent a still hidden evolution of their disease. |access-date=January 18, 2023}}{{cite news |title=The Father of the Abortion Pill |first=Pam |last=Belluck |author-link=Pam Belluck |date=January 17, 2023 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/health/abortion-pill-inventor.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare |quote=Today, his team studies Alzheimer’s and has started clinical trials on a new method to treat severe depression, based on Dr. Baulieu’s ideas about a receptor for a particular neurosteroid. }}

• 1967 Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite
• 1982 French Academy of Sciences, President, 2003–4
• 1989 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research,
• 1990 National Academy of Sciences
• 1990 Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur
• 1990 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}
• 2002 French Academy of Medicine,
• European Academy of Sciences and Arts

• Baulieu EE, Kelly PA. Hormones — From Molecules to Disease. Springer (1990) {{ISBN|0-412-02791-7}}
• Baulieu EE. Neurosteroids: A New Regulatory Function in the Nervous System. Humana Press (1999) {{ISBN|0-89603-545-X}}
• Baulieu EE. Abortion Pill. Simon & Schuster (1991) {{ISBN|0-671-73816-X}}
• Baulieu EE. Etienne-Émile Baulieu. Génération Pilule (Paris: 1990).(Autobiography in French)

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.canalacademie.com/Professeur-Etienne-Emile-Baulieu.html An interview with Étienne-Émile Baulieu about his research (French)]
• [http://www.canal-u.fr/index.php/canalu/producteurs/biotv/dossier_programmes/portraits_de_chercheurs/etienne_emile_baulieu_fragments_de_vie_et_de_recherche Étienne-Émile Baulieu: fragments de vie et de recherche A portrait of Étienne-Émile Baulieu by BioTV (French)]
• [http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/main.asp?intSubSectionID=3421 Lecture on Aging and Hormones]

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Category:1926 births

Category:Living people

Category:French endocrinologists

Category:French biochemists

Category:French Resistance members

Category:20th-century French Jews

Category:21st-century French Jews

Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France

Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour

Category:Officers of the French Academy of Sciences

Category:Lycée Pasteur (Neuilly-sur-Seine) alumni

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

Category:Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award

Category:Inserm directors