Ruth Lehmann receives 2020 Francis Amory Prize

Whitehead Institute Director Ruth Lehmann has been awarded the 2020 Francis Amory Prize in Reproductive Medicine and Reproductive Physiology by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Lehmann shares the prize with geneticist Gertrud M. Schüpbach, emeritus professor at Princeton University and a longtime friend and colleague. The Amory Prize recognizes outstanding achievements in medicine and reproductive physiology, and Lehmann and Schüpbach are being recognized for their contributions to areas including DNA repair, embryonic development, RNA regulation, and stem cell research. Lehmann, who is also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studies the biological origins of germ cells, the sex cells that produce eggs and sperm. Her research has shed light on many aspects of the germ cell life cycle, including how germ cells first form and become set apart from the rest of the body’s cells, how they migrate to the gonads during embryonic development, and how they remain protected in order to produce the next generation, preserving and passing on the complex instructions to construct a new life. Lehmann and Schüpbach will accept the Amory Prize at a virtual American Academy of Arts & Sciences event on February 3, 2021. To learn more, click here.