FMI director Susan Gasser receives highly esteemed Inserm Prize

FMI director Susan Gasser receives highly esteemed Inserm International Prize. Susan Gasser, director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research of the Novartis Research Foundation, receives today the highly esteemed Inserm Prix International in Paris, for her outstanding scientific contributions to the field of epigenetics. She is honored for her lifetime achievements, which contribute to our understanding of the genetic processes that drive cancer, cell type differentiation and aging. Since 2004, the Inserm Prix International has been awarded by the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médical in Paris. Susan Gasser is interested in processes in the cell nucleus that regulate genome function. The structure of the eukaryotic chromosome and its dynamics in the cell nucleus have long occupied her focus. Her demonstration that active and inactive genes are spatially segregated by the proteins that compact the DNA fiber into chromatin, set the stage for studying nuclear organization.