Geraldine C. Seydoux (born 1964 in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics (1995–present), the Huntington Sheldon Professor in Medical Discovery (2015–present), and the Vice Dean for Basic Research (2017–present) at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. She is also a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

Investigator. In 2002, ''

Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine * "Discover", a song by Chris Brown from his 2015 album ''Royalty'' Businesses and bran ...

'' magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.

Education

Seydoux received a B.Sc. from the

University of Maine, Orono The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

in 1986. She graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with a Ph.D. in 1991, and did post-doctoral training at the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

before joining Johns Hopkins University in 1995.

Research

Seydoux's work has focused on the earliest stages of

embryogenesis An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male ...

and how single-celled eggs develop into multicellular embryos. The Seydoux lab attempts to determine the process by which embryonic development and polarization are activated. Seydoux studies ''

Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a Hybrid word, blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''r ...

'' to examine how

embryos An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

choose between soma and

germline In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that develop into germ cells. In other words, they are the cells that form gametes ( eggs and sperm), which can come together to form a zygote. They dif ...

. She was able to demonstrate that the synthesis of

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of Protein biosynthesis, synthesizing a protein. mRNA is ...

must be globally inhibited prior to the establishment of the germline. Seydoux has also confirmed that proteins in a fertilizing sperm trigger the reorganization of structural proteins inside the ovum. This is an essential step towards the anterior-posterior polarization of the one celled embryo. Geraldine Seydoux's studies provide much insight into the creation of a fully formed multicellular organism from a single cell.

Awards

* 2022,

Gruber Prize in Genetics The Gruber Prize in Genetics, established in 2001, is one of three international awards worth US$500,000 made by the Gruber Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The Genetics Prize honors lead ...

* 2019, Harvey Lecture * 2018, Kuggie Vallee Distinguished Lecturer * 2016, elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* 2013, elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 2001, Kirsch Investigator * 2001,

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

*1997, Searle Scholar * 1996, Fellow,

David and Lucile Packard Foundation The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard (co-founder of HP) and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's dea ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seydoux, Geraldine Johns Hopkins University faculty Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Princeton University alumni Living people MacArthur Fellows Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American geneticists 1964 births Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers