The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) announced today (September 30) the appointment of a new president: Maria Leptin, a developmental biologist at the University of Cologne, Germany.

Maria Leptin Image: EMBO

Leptin will be the first woman appointed to the position, and takes over from Herman Bujard, the director since 2007, who is stepping down to devote more time to his research on malaria and gene expression control. She will be the fifth president of the group since it was founded in 1965.

Leptin studies the transcription factors that govern the determination of cell shape during development, as well as the evolutionary basis of pathogen resistance in zebrafish. She has published approximately 60 papers, which have been cited some 2400 times.

Leptin plans to maintain her research group at the University of Cologne while starting up another group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory near EMBO headquarters in Heidelberg.


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