Jean-Louis Mergny got his PhD in 1991 (University Paris VI) under the supervision of T. Garestier & M. Rougée (Triple-helices: spectroscopic studies) in Claude Hélène’s laboratory. He went for a postdoctoral position in Basel, Switzerland with W. Gehring (Biozentrum). Afterwards he was hired by INSERM in 1993 in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, where he worked mainly on nucleic acids structures from a biophysical point of view. He was promoted Research Director in 2002, and he joined the European Institute of Chemistry & Biology (IECB) in September 2009. Jean-Louis Mergny acts as an Associate Editor for the Elsevier journals Biochimie and Methods.