Jacob and Monod

Jacob and Monod were French scientists who, in the early 1960s, explored how genes are regulated in bacteria. They proposed the operon model, which describes how groups of genes can work together to produce specific proteins. They demonstrated that a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) carries genetic information from DNA to the cellular machinery that makes proteins. Their work showed how cells can turn genes on or off in response to environmental changes, influencing functions like metabolism. This fundamentally advanced our understanding of genetics and opened new avenues in molecular biology and biotechnology.