Olivier Pourquié

Born on September 1, 1964 in Angouleme (France), he graduated from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (AgroParisTech), with an Engineering degree in 1988. He then completed a PhD (1992) and Postdoc at the Institut d’Embryologie du CNRS et du College de France in Nogent sur Marne (France). He was a group leader at the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseilles, at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research (USA) and the director of the Institut de Genetique et Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire in Strasbourg (France).

He is now the Frank Burr Mallory Professor of Genetics and Pathology at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His laboratory made major contributions toward understanding the molecular mechanism underlying vertebrate segmentation through which the periodic organization of the spine is established during development. His research focuses on the musculo-skeletal system using model organisms and pluripotent stem cell models to understand its embryonic development and to develop cell therapy applications.