Prestige Lecture - Fiona Watt
Save the date for INEM’s 2026 Prestige Lecture Series, featuring Professor Fiona Watt, EMBO Director and an internationally recognised leader in stem cell biology.
From 1 to 4 December, Professor Watt will lead two lectures and two symposia exploring stem cell biology, tissue regeneration and the future of research institutes.
PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE
All events will take place at INEM:
160 rue de Vaugirard, 75015 Paris
- Tuesday 1 December | 15:00–18:00
Symposium 1 : Stem-cell niches, epithelial plasticity and tissue regeneration
- Wednesday 2 December | 10:00–11:15
Lecture 1 : From epidermal stem cells to tissue homeostasis: discoveries, niches and regenerative medicine
- Thursday 3 December | 14:30–17:30
Symposium 2 : What does a research institute need to succeed in complex modern biology?
- Friday 4 December | 10:00–11:15
Lecture 2 : The research institute of the future
ABOUT PROFESSOR FIONA WATT
After studying at the University of Cambridge, Professor Fiona Watt earned her PhD at the University of Oxford and completed postdoctoral research at MIT, where she began investigating differentiation and tissue organisation in mammalian epidermis. She established her first research group at the Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology in London before spending 20 years at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, a forerunner of the Francis Crick Institute. She subsequently helped establish the CRUK Cambridge Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research. In 2012, she founded the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London. From 2018 to 2022, Professor Watt served on secondment as Executive Chair of the UK Medical Research Council. In 2022, she moved to Heidelberg, where she leads a research group at EMBL and serves as EMBO Director. That same year, she founded Fibrodyne Limited, a start-up developing cell therapies for skin scars. Her current research includes developing artificial niches to investigate the regulation of epidermal stem cell fate. Her distinctions include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, an EMBO Member and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Further details of the Prestige Lecture week with Prof. Watt will be announced in September.
Four days. Two lectures. Two symposia. One exceptional scientific conversation.
We look forward to welcoming you to INEM.
