Dr Anne Ephrussi

Research Priorities: Developmental biology, egg cell development, cell polarity, mechanisms of mRNA transport and translation, RNA-protein complexes
Anne Ephrussi is a French-American molecular biologist, whose studies have been aimed at elucidating mechanisms that underlie cell polarity and egg cell development. Using the fruit fly as a model organism, she and her team have investigated how RNA molecules are transported within cells, and how their translation into protein is regulated during development. Anne Ephrussi’s research has shed light on the transport mechanisms involved in the process and shown that aberrant RNA localisation and translation lead to defects in gamete formation and embryonic development.
Anne Ephrussi’s main focus has been on understanding the processes that mediate the spatial and temporal control of mRNAs during development. Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a genetic model organism and the oskar gene and its RNA and protein producs as a paradigm, her research group has investigated the mechanisms by which RNA molecules are transported and their translation regulated in cells. She has also investigated how the Oskar protein assembles the germ plasm and induces germline formation in the fly. She discovered that accumulation of oskar RNA at the posterior pole of the Drosophila egg defines the posterior pf the future embryo, and that mis-localization of the RNA in the embryo causes severe embryonic patterning defects. The transport of oskar mRNA to its correct position in the egg cell relies on tight coordination of two molecular motors of opposite polarity as they move the RNA and associated proteins along microtubules. Anne Ephrussi’s team uncovered a molecular switch that controls this precise transport mechanism. She and her colleagues have also shown that transition of oskar transport complexes from the liquid to the solid phase is essential for proper RNA regulation and embryonic development.
In addition to her research Anne Ephrussi led the Laboratory’s Developmental Biology Unit from 2007 to 2021. She has been actively engaged in training young scientists and led the International Centre for Advanced Training at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory from 2005 through 2023.