About Jérôme Lejeune
Jérôme Jean Louis Marie Lejeune was a French pediatrician and geneticist. He is best known for his work on the links between chromosome abnormalities like Down syndrome (trisomy-21) and cri du chat syndrome. He is also known for his subsequent strong opposition to the use of amniocentesis prenatal testing for eugenic purposes through selective and elective abortion. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been declared Venerable by Pope Francis on 21 January 2021. In 1958, while working in Raymond Turpin’s laboratory with Marthe Gautier, Jérôme Lejeune reported that he had discovered that Down syndrome was caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. The discovery was published by the French Academy of Sciences with Lejeune as first author, Gautier as second author, and Turpin as senior author.
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