November 21, 2022
She will remain a great name in medical and scientific research. The isolation of the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which is a major player in the genital differentiation of the fetus, is both the result of experimental research conducted under her direction and the starting point of a clinical history that is far to be completed. Nathalie Josso devoted her whole life to it with a dual commitment always superbly assumed. It was first that of pediatrician very quickly turned to the problems posed by situations of variations in genital development at birth. She had to keep this attachment to the clinical gaze which gave all its meaning to her research. Her most recent publications bear witness to this.
While she was finishing her internship, the questions raised by abnormal clinical situations of genital development were still in this descriptive phase where knowledge of fetal development was being built. Very quickly it appeared that fetal testicular activity was decisive in two aspects: the secretion of testosterone on the one hand, but also a still unknown fetal activity that Alfred Jost, Professor at the Collège de France, had identified in 1947 by a superb experimental research. In the fetus, he had shown that the presence of the testicle “prevented” the persistence of the Müllerian apparatus.
Nathalie Josso chose to join Pr Jost’s laboratory at the end of her internship. There she began a life of research that would be carried out with exceptional determination surrounded by a faithful team. The premature death of Alfred Jost left this field orphaned and gave Dr Josso the possibility of turning to research with rare lucidity. She retained her medical roots, but in the laboratory the construction of a brilliant experimental approach was to lead to the identification and isolation of AMH.
All the research steps that are necessary today to understand the molecular structure of this hormone, its biological potential and its role in fetal development have been completed by Nathalie Josso and her team. She thus opened the doors to a new and very complete biological exploration of the pathologies of sexual differentiation.
The rest of her publications resonate like a brilliant construction, using the best techniques of the moment and we understand from reading them that the history of the AMH is far from over. It is already a necessary tool for the diagnostic exploration of variations in genital development, adolescent gynecology, fertility and certain cancers.
She was an active ESPE member and was awarded the ESPE Andrea Prader Prize in 1992.
We extend all the sympathy of our community to her loved ones.