Edith Heard (born 1965)[1]FRSMAE[2] is a British-French researcher in epigenetics who has been serving as the Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) since January 2019.[3][4] She is also Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory. In 2025 she will become CEO of the Francis Crick Institute in London, U.K.
Heard's main areas of research include genetics, epigenetics and developmental biology,[3][12] in particular focussing on X-chromosome inactivation, which occurs when one of the two copies of the X chromosomes in female mammals is inactivated. Her work on this process started in the 1990’s during her post-doc in the laboratory of Philip Avner at the Pasteur Institute. After joining the CNRS, she continued to work on X inactivation, performing functional studies on the X-inactivation centre locus that regulates the initiation of X inactivation.[13][14] In 2000, Heard spent a year as a visiting scientist in David Spector’s group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory[15] where she discovered some of the early chromatin changes in the X-inactivation process.[10]
Heard set up her own laboratory at the Institut Curie in 2001. Amongst her contributions, her group showed that X-chromosome inactivation happens not once, but twice, during development: first in all cells designated to building the placenta, then again in some cells sent off to build the embryo.[16][17][18]
Heard developed powerful single-cell techniques enabling the analysis of fixed and living embryos and embryonic stem cells. These led to one of her major discoveries, showing that X-inactivation is a highly dynamic process during early embryogenesis and revealing major differences in X-inactivation strategies in different mammals, from mouse to man. Heard has also 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.[2][19] Thanks to their studies on the X-inactivation centre, the Heard group also revealed the existence of Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) in collaboration with Job Dekker.[20]
Heard has been a professor at the Collège 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.[21] She and her laboratory moved to EMBL in 2019. In 2016, Heard was involved in establishing a Government of France programme to support scientists displaced by war or conflict – the Programme d'aide à l'accueil en urgence des scientifiques en exil (PAUSE).[22]
In 2023, Heard chaired the selection committee that chose Yasmine Belkaid to succeed Stewart Cole as director of the Institut Pasteur.[28]
Awards and honours
In 2017, Heard was awarded the Inserm Grand Prix for her work on epigenetics.[29] In 2013, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in recognition for her discoveries in epigenetics.[2] Her nomination reads:
Heard has made several groundbreaking discoveries in epigenetics, through her studies on X-chromosome inactivation, the process of dosage compensation in mammals. Heard developed powerful single-cell techniques enabling the analysis of fixed and living embryos and embryonic stem cells. These led to one of her major discoveries, showing that X-inactivation is a highly dynamic process during early embryogenesis and revealing major differences in X-inactivation strategies in different mammals, from mouse to man. Heard has also 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.[2]
^ abcdAnon (2013). "Professor Edith Heard FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
^Chow, J.; Heard, E. (2009). "X inactivation and the complexities of silencing a sex chromosome". Current Opinion in Cell Biology. 21 (3): 359–366. doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2009.04.012. PMID19477626.
^"Science". Bayer Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 August 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
