{"id":66275,"date":"2024-02-12T16:29:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=66275"},"modified":"2024-07-22T11:52:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T09:52:03","slug":"what-ive-learned-anne-ephrussi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/what-ive-learned-anne-ephrussi\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Ephrussi: what I’ve learned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In December, Anne Ephrussi began packing up her Heidelberg lab as she officially retired from EMBL to embark on new adventures.  For those who know her, it probably won\u2019t come as a surprise that retirement doesn\u2019t seem like much of a slow-down. With manuscripts to complete, grants to review, and seminars to give, as well as being among the very first to receive EMBL\u2019s new researcher \u2018emeritus\u2019 status upon her departure, Anne Ephrussi\u2019s connection to the life sciences continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chat with her before her departure provided an opportunity to hear stories from throughout her career and allowed her to reflect on what she has learned along the way. But let us start with a brief introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ephrussi\u2019s parents, both renowned scientists, encouraged creativity. Credit: \u00a9The Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg Trust.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ephrussi\u2019s career may have seemed like a foregone conclusion with two eminent life scientist parents, Boris Ephrussi<\/a> and Harriett Ephrussi-Taylor<\/a>.  However, Ephrussi was determined not to be pigeonholed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was a little over six years old, her family moved from Paris to Cleveland, Ohio, where her parents joined several other scientists in establishing a unique developmental biology centre at Western Reserve University. Ephrussi\u2019s mother would die seemingly at the height of her scientific career, when Anne was only 12 years old. Her father would die just 11 years later \u2013 a jarring start to a lifelong training in resilience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ephrussi attended Harvard University for her undergraduate studies followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she earned her PhD. After two postdocs \u2013 at Harvard University and the Whitehead Institute, MIT \u2013 she began her career at EMBL.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1992, Ephrussi launched her EMBL research group. Using the oskar<\/em> gene as a paradigm, her team focused on understanding how RNA molecules are transported and their translation regulated in animal development, and how the germ plasm forms and induces germline formation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n \u201cI joined Anne\u2019s lab as a postdoc and was immediately impressed by how she would ask the key questions, pushing your project and your science further. What I was not expecting from someone as busy as Anne is how much she cares about her people, identifying who they deeply are to help them develop their skills and personality, and navigate through their career path.\u201d <\/span> <\/div>\n \n