Congratulations to Professor Kathy Niakan and Professor Emma Rawlins as they are elected as Members of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), in its 60th anniversary year.
Joining 120 scientists, elected from across Europe, the Membership celebrates research excellence and outstanding achievements in life sciences. EMBO Director, Fiona Watt, said: “The new EMBO Members and Associate Members have made immense contributions to fundamental life science research, and, in many cases, their work has paved the way for innovations that have improved lives and livelihoods around the world.”
Professor Niakan is Director of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, and Co-Chair of the Cambridge Reproduction Interdisciplinary Research Centre. She said: “I’m honoured by this tremendous recognition of our research, which has involved an entire team of dedicated and talented colleagues. I'm also very grateful to generous patient donors and collaborators who supported our research over many years. I look forward to contributing to EMBO's mission to promote international collaborations, support talented early career researchers and inform science policy.”. 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.
Professor Rawlins is Senior Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute and Professor of Developmental Physiology at PDN. On her election, she said: “I’m extremely grateful to my lab members, collaborators and mentors who have worked with me to develop the fun projects that are now being recognised by EMBO. It feels wonderful to be recognised by the European scientific community when I still feel like the ordinary kid from South Yorkshire, and it will be exciting to interact with other members.”. Professor Rawlins' research is focused on lung development and stem cells. Her lab has developed human lung models that can be grown in a dish, and a series of tools to genetically manipulate them, allowing the fundamental mechanisms of human lung development to be investigated.
More than 2100 life scientists make up the Membership of EMBO, with 92 Nobel laureates among those who have previously been elected. EMBO Members guide the execution of the EMBO Programmes and activities, for example by evaluating funding applications, serving on EMBO Council and committees, and contributing to initiatives such as training, policy, outreach and mentorship. New members are nominated and elected by the existing EMBO Membership.
EMBO will formally welcome the new members at a meeting of the EMBO community between 29 October and 1 November 2024 in Heidelberg, Germany.