Wendy Bickmore

Wendy Bickmore is Director of the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Her undergraduate degree is in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and her PhD was on the evolution of the X and Y chromosomes in primates. She is fascinated by the structure and organization of chromosomes in the nucleus. She showed that different human chromosomes have preferred positions in the nucleus, related to their gene content, and addressed how genes are organized and packaged in the nucleus and how they move in the cell cycle and during development. Current research in Wendy Bickmore’s laboratory focuses on how the spatial organization of the nucleus influences genome function in development and disease. Wendy is an EMBO member, a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences and is the president of the Genetics Society of Great Britain. She is an editor on many journals including PLoS Genetics and Cell.