Axel Kahn

Axel Kahn was a French geneticist who lived from 1944 to 2021 and worked in gene therapy. He first entered the national medical research institute INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry, and from 1984 to 2007 headed French laboratories specialized in biomedical sciences. He served on the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and in 2002 was named a counsellor for biosciences and biotechnologies matters by the European Commission. In December 2007 he was elected president of Paris Descartes University as the sole candidate. He was well known in France for media appearances in which he explained genetics and ethics to the public, and he headed the committee in charge of genetically modified crops for Europe. His brothers were the journalist Jean-Francois Kahn and the chemist Olivier Kahn.