Franck Zal: The Extraordinary Discovery of M101 and His Journey in Marine Biology

This article is taken from the monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n°924, dated February 2024.

It is the story of an enormous scientific breakthrough and the life of a man who nothing seemed predestined for this success. Tunisian mother, Polish father, site manager, numerous siblings: Franck Zal, a UFO in a family where he will be the first to obtain the baccalaureate, is a doctor in marine biology, discoverer of the extraordinary properties of the hemoglobin of marine worms. Arenicola marinaor broken for the Bretons, is a freediving champion.

From this abundant species on the foreshore of the CNRS biological station of Roscoff (Finistère) where he worked, the scientist derived a molecule designated by the code M101. This marine hemoglobin, which binds 40 times more oxygen than human hemoglobin, has proven to be a formidable universal oxygen transporter.

M101 was successfully used

Since its development in 2007, when the researcher left the CNRS to create his start-up, Hemarina, until its marketing authorization in 2022, M101 has been used successfully, in particular to oxygenate cells more sustainably. grafts before transplants, or to promote healing in the event of large burns.

This life story structured around chapters of popular science also reveals the journey of a researcher subject to jealousy and espionage, grateful to the institution and his mentors, but criticizing a system based on the separation between fundamental and applied research, dominated by politics, and by a precautionary principle which slows down innovation. Points of view that Franck Zal accepts by affirming his desire to be useful to society.

“A treasure under the sand“, Franck Zal, with Elena Sender and Robert Thibierge, Les Arènes, 247 p., €21

2024-02-18 17:13:16
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