Julie Ahringer

Julie Ahringer is a Professor of Genetics and Genomics at the Gurdon Institute and Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. Ahringer's research on molecular genetics has expanded our understanding of cell structure and gene expression. Ahringer carried out the first systematic inactivation of all the genes in any animal, which pioneered genome-wide reverse genetic screening. Using this breakthrough, she illuminated the processes underlying cell polarity and gene expression and enabled a wide range of discoveries across biology by the research community. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the British Academy of Medical Sciences and was elected a member of EMBO. She also received the Royal Society Francis Crick Lecture Prize and the Genetics Society of America's George W. Beadle Award. Ahringer received a B.A. in Chemistry from Lafayette College and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.