The daughter of Boris Ephrussi. Her research is focussed on the study of post-transcriptional regulations such as mRNA localization and translation control in molecular biology as wel as the establishment of polarity axes in cell and develop- mental biology Ephrussi Group - RNA localisation and localised translation in deve- lopment - EMBL. She is Head of the Developmental Biology Unit and director of the EMBL International Centre for Advanced Training (EICAT) program at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Dr. Ephrussi established that oskar RNA is accumulated at and thereby defines the posterior pole of the Drosophila oocyte. Aberrant localization and translation leads to germ cel formation defects and mispatterning during development. Proper localization of oskar mRNA is ensured by concerted actions of the exon junction complex and oskar's 3' UTR followed by a microtubule-based movement. During transport, translation of oskar is repressed by the RNA-binding protein Bruno, which is in turn released by the binding of activators (e.g. Orb) upon arrival at the posterior pole. After proper localization, oskar RNA is translated and organizes germ plasm by recruiting other proteins such as Vasa. Her lab's current research continues to focus on spatial and temporal control of translation and which role ribonucleoprotein comple- xes, cytoskeletal polarization and cytoskeletal motors play in RNA localization.