Geraldine Seydoux

Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Geraldine Seydoux is a developmental biologist whose research focuses on development of the germline (cells that become the eggs and sperm). She is investigating the mechanisms that lead to the establishment of germline stem cells during early development and has found that global inhibition of mRNA transcription is an essential first step. Her lab is also studying how initial asymmetries in the egg, necessary for the development of the germline and other specialized tissues, are brought about by interactions between the sperm and specific egg proteins at fertilization. Dr. Seydoux was born in Paris, France and educated in France and Italy before moving to the United States in 1982. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1991 from Princeton University. She did her post-doctoral training at the Carnegie Institution of Washington before joining the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1995. Geraldine's honors include a Basil O'Connor Research Award from the March of Dimes, a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society, a Fellowship for Science and Engineering from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and a Searle Scholar Award. In 1999, she was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Institutes of Health. In 2001, she became a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.