Nicole Le Douarin is an experimental embryologist whose research has focussed on both the development of the immune system and the importance of the neural crest in the formation of the head and brain within vertebrate embryos.

Having discovered that cells from quails can be uniquely marked, Nicole’s studies have stemmed from following the movement and fates of embryonic cells within quail–chick chimeras — single organisms containing cells of genetically distinct origins. This approach led to the first identification of stem cells within the neural crest.

Nicole’s work has received many accolades, including the 1997 Ross Harrison Prize of the International Society of Developmental Biologists and the inaugural Pearl Meister Greengard Prize of the Rockefeller University in 2004. She has been elected to membership in a variety of other prestigious scientific organisations, including the French Académie des Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences and EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization.