Edith Heard is Professor at the College de France, holding the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory.
21 Facts About Edith Heard
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From 2010 to 2018, Heard was the Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology department at the Curie Institute, France.
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Edith Heard graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge as a student of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating in 1986.
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Edith Heard was awarded a PhD from Imperial College London for research investigating gene amplification in rat cells in 1990 while working at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratory in London, UK.
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In 2000, Edith Heard spent a year as a visiting scientist in David Spector's group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where she discovered some of the early chromatin changes in the X-inactivation process.
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Edith Heard set up her own laboratory at the Institut Curie in 2001.
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Edith Heard developed powerful single-cell techniques enabling the analysis of fixed and living embryos and embryonic stem cells.
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Edith Heard has performed pioneering work revealing that in addition to epigenetic modifications, chromosome organization and nuclear compartmentalization are important players in the initiation and maintenance of X inactivation.
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Thanks to their studies on the X-inactivation centre, the Edith Heard group revealed the existence of Topologically Associating Domains in collaboration with Job Dekker.
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Edith Heard has been a professor at the College de France, holding the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory, and from 2010 to 2018 she was director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology department at the Institut Curie in Paris.
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Edith Heard has served as a member of the science council of the World Health Organization since 2021.
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In 2023, Edith Heard chaired the selection committee that chose Yasmine Belkaid to succeed Stewart Cole as director of the Institut Pasteur.
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In 2017, Edith Heard was awarded the Inserm Grand Prix for her work on epigenetics.
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Edith Heard has made several groundbreaking discoveries in epigenetics, through her studies on X-chromosome inactivation, the process of dosage compensation in mammals.
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Edith Heard developed powerful single-cell techniques enabling the analysis of fixed and living embryos and embryonic stem cells.
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Edith Heard has performed pioneering work revealing that in addition to epigenetic modifications, chromosome organization and nuclear compartmentalization are important players in the initiation and maintenance of X inactivation.
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In 2011, Edith Heard received the Grand Prix de la Fondation pour la recherche medicale.
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Edith Heard has been an EMBO Member since 2005 and won the Suffrage Science award in 2012.
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Edith Heard received the European Society for Human Genetics Award in 2017 and the Hansen Family Award in 2019.
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In December 2022, Edith Heard was elected to the French Academy of Sciences under the section 'Human Biology and Medical Sciences' for her work on epigenetics, particularly in deciphering the process of X-chromosome inactivation.
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Edith Heard has been chosen as the 2025 recipient of The Croonian Medal and Lecture for being a leading figure in X-chromosome biology.