A wonderful start to the New Year as we receive news that Professor Kathy Niakan, is winner of the Genetics Society's 2025 Mary Lyon Medal.
Named after the distinguished geneticist Mary Lyon FRS, the award was established in 2015 to reward outstanding research in genetics to scientists who are in the middle of their research career. The Mary Lyon medal is awarded annually, and the winner is invited to present a lecture at one of the Genetics Society scientific meetings.
Professor Niakan, who is Director of the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research and Co-Chair of the Cambridge Reproduction Interdisciplinary Research Centre, said: “I am extremely grateful to an entire team of dedicated and talented colleagues and collaborators who have supported the research which is being recognised by the Genetics Society. I'm also incredibly grateful to the generous patient donors and clinics who supported our research, this work could not happen without them and the supportive research environment in the UK”.
Professor Niakan's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that regulate early human development. With her team she investigates mechanisms that are conserved and divergent using comparative embryology approaches. These insights are used to inform and expand the repertoire of human embryonic and extraembryonic stem cell models.