Julie Ahringer has made wide-ranging contributions to molecular genetics through her work on the nematode C. elegans. She carried out the first systematic inactivation of all the genes in any animal, which pioneered genome-wide reverse genetic screening.

Her research has illuminated our understanding of the processes underlying cell polarity and gene expression. This includes showing that spindle positioning is controlled by heterotrimeric G protein signalling, discovering a connection between chromatin marking and mRNA splicing, and most recently revealing mechanisms and principles of genome organisation and gene expression regulation.

Julie is the Director and a Senior Group Leader of the Gurdon Institute, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a member of EMBO.  She received the Royal Society Francis Crick Lecture Prize and the Genetics Society of America's George W. Beadle Award.