Guillaume Lessene's Biography

Guillaume Lessene, Associate Professor, The Walter And Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Associate Professor Guillaume Lessene jointly heads the ACRF Chemical Biology Division at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
The division assembles expertise in medicinal chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology; and applies chemical biology approaches to validating therapeutic targets, and elucidating the biological pathways that drive disease.
Dr Lessene trained as an organic chemist, completing his PhD at the University of Bordeaux, before undertaking postdoctoral work with Prof Feldman at Penn State. Since moving to WEHI in 2001, his major research focus has been developing small molecules that target the apoptotic and more recently the necroptotic cell death pathways.
His work on targeting the Bcl-2 family proteins for cancer therapy formed the basis of a major collaboration between WEHI and two biopharmaceuticals, Genentech and AbbVie. For this work, he has been recognised by the RACI and WEHI, where he was awarded the Biota Award in 2009, and the Burnet Prize in 2013.