Two Women Honored for Their Work in Genetics Research

The Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics has honored two young scientists with Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Awards. The award, funded by The Gruber Foundation, is presented every three years. The award comes with a $75,000 cash prize that will be given to help fund the recipients’ research over the next three years. The recipients will receive their awards at the convention of the American Society for Human Genetics in San Francisco this coming November.

Valerie Horsley, the Maxine F. Singer Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, was selected for her research on genetic mouse models to study how stem cells generate skin tissue.

Dr. Horsley is a graduate of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University.

Mary Gehring is the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Career Development Assistant Professor of Biology and Member of the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was honored for her research on imprinting and epigenetic regulation.

Dr. Gehring holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.