Fiona M. Watt Receives the 2024 ISSCR Achievement Award for her Seminal Work with Skin Stem Cells
Evanston, IL—The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) will award its 2024 ISSCR Achievement Award to Fiona M. Watt, DPhil, FRS, FMedSci, EMBO Director and leader of a research group at EMBL- Heidelberg, Germany. The award recognizes the transformative body of work of an investigator that has had a major impact on the field of stem cell research or regenerative medicine. Dr. Watt will present her research during Plenary VII on 13 July at the ISSCR 2024 Annual Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. ISSCR 2024 is the world’s leading gathering of the brightest minds in stem cell research and cell and regenerative medicine.
“Fiona is a giant in stem cell biology and a driving force in the inception of the skin stem cell field,” ISSCR President Amander Clark, Ph.D. said. “Throughout her storied career, Fiona has made seminal findings that contribute to our knowledge of how stem cells behave, resulting in an incredibly profound impact on the field that crosses tissues, disciplines, and countries. I’m so honored to congratulate Fiona on this recognition of her momentous achievements.”
“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Dr. Watt said. “The ISSCR is a wonderful organization that is as vigorous today as when it was founded.”
Fiona Watt is internationally recognized for her work on skin. She found markers to isolate epidermal stem cells and elucidated signaling pathways that regulate stem cell behavior. She uncovered the plasticity of epidermal stem and differentiated cells and discovered how epidermal-dermal communication controls skin homeostasis. Dr. Watt pioneered single cell analysis, defining how biophysical cues elicit transcriptional responses. She demonstrated the existence of different skin fibroblast lineages, enabling new strategies to treat fibrosis and scarring. Her work has resulted in new insights into how epidermal deregulation leads to tumor formation. Dr. Watt is a member of the EMBO, the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences.
The 2024 ISSCR Achievement Award is supported by BlueRock Therapeutics/Bayer AG.
ISSCR 2024, co-sponsored by the City of Hamburg, Life Science Nord, Bayer, and BlueRock Therapeutics, will take place 10-13 July 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.
About the International Society for Stem Cell Research (www.isscr.org)
With nearly 5,000 members from 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health. Additional information about stem cell science is available at AboutStemCells.org, an initiative of the Society to inform the public about stem cell research and its potential to improve human health.
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