Life with Two X Chromosomes
The Richard M. Furlaud Distinguished Lecture
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Edith Heard, Ph.D., professor, Collège de France; director general, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
- Speaker bio(s)
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Epigenetic mechanisms are crucial for normal development, tissue homeostasis and adult physiology. Mammalian X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), whereby one of the two X chromosomes is silenced during early female development, is an essential epigenetic process that is required to achieve appropriate dosage between the sexes for X-linked gene products. This process represents a paradigm for epigenetics, facultative heterochromatin formation and monoallelic gene regulation. Dr. Edith Heard will present her laboratory’s recent work investigating the relationship between gene activity, chromatin states and chromosome topology in the context of X inactivation and new insights into the role of the long non-coding Xist RNA as a key regulator of gene dosage in females throughout life.
Edith Heard is EMBL Director General and Professor of the Collège de France. She studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (UK) and obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. After a postdoc at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, she moved to the Institut Curie where she became Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit in 2010, before moving to EMBL in 2019. Edith’s laboratory specialises in epigenetics and the process of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) whereby one of the two X chromosomes is silenced during female mammalian development. Her group has revealed the remarkable dynamics of X inactivation in development and disease and provided key insights into the underlying mechanisms. Heard is a fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of several academies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional