Biologist Edith Heard, specialist in epigenetics, CNRS gold medalist for her research on the X chromosome

Biologist Edith Heard, specialist in epigenetics, professor at the Collège de France and director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), received the 2024 CNRS gold medal. His work focuses in particular on the mechanisms of inactivation of the X chromosome.

In mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y. The Y “carries only a hundred genes, when the X chromosome has more than a thousand”. To compensate for this imbalance, nature deactivates one of the two X chromosomes in the female. The success of this process is vital for the survival of the female embryo. By shedding light on its functioning, the discoveries of Edith Heard “open up medical perspectives for treating many diseases”.