Margaret Buckingham facts for kids

Margaret Buckingham, ForMemRS (born March 2, 1945) is a French-British developmental biologist. This means she studies how living things grow and develop from a single cell. Her work focuses on how muscles (myogenesis) and hearts (cardiogenesis) form. She is an honorary professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. She is also an emeritus director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in France. Margaret Buckingham is a member of several important scientific groups. These include the European Molecular Biology Organization and the French Academy of Sciences.

Margaret Buckingham's Life and Career

Margaret Buckingham grew up in Scotland and studied at Oxford University. There, she earned degrees in Biochemistry, which is the study of the chemistry of living things. After her studies, she moved to Paris to work at the Pasteur Institute. She continued her scientific career there.

Her Roles and Recognition

Today, she is an honorary professor at the Pasteur Institute. She is also an emeritus director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). This is a major research organization in France. From 2016 to 2022, she was part of the scientific council for the ERC. She also leads the prize committee for the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation. This foundation supports research on the heart and blood vessels.

In 2013, she received the gold medal from the CNRS. This is a very high honor for scientists in France. She is a member of the French Academy of Sciences. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London/Edinburgh. She is an international member of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Margaret Buckingham also leads the Ethics committee at the Pasteur Institute. She is part of the scientific commission at the Institut Curie in Paris. She also advises the Human Developmental Biology Initiative in the UK.

Personal Life

Margaret Buckingham has both French and British nationality. She is married to Richard Buckingham. He was the Editor-in-Chief of a science journal called Biochimie until December 2020. They have three children.

Understanding How Bodies Develop

Margaret Buckingham is a developmental biologist. She is very interested in how simple cells become specialized. This happens during embryo development. She has studied how both skeletal muscles and the heart form. She uses special tools from mouse molecular genetics. This helps her understand how cells behave. It also helps her find the genes that decide what a cell will become.

How Muscles Form

Margaret Buckingham's early research looked at how muscle genes work. Her lab then studied special factors that control muscle growth. They found that a gene called Myf5 appears before another gene called MyoD in an embryo. If Myf5 and MRF4 are missing, cells cannot form skeletal muscle. Instead, they become other types of cells.

They also found that a gene called PAX3 helps activate Myf5. This happens in different places where muscles form. Through their research, they found other genes that Pax3 controls. This showed how important Pax3 is for starting muscle development in an embryo.

They also discovered special cells called Pax3/Pax7-positive progenitors. These cells are vital for a baby's muscle development before birth. They also showed that Pax-positive satellite cells, found in adult muscles, are like stem cells. These stem cells help muscles repair themselves after injury. They found genes, like Pitx2/3, that affect how these cells behave. They also showed that Myf5 mRNA, found in resting satellite cells, is stored until the cells are needed for repair.

How the Heart Forms

Margaret Buckingham's main discovery about heart development is the "second heart field" (SHF). This is a major source of cells that form specific parts of the heart. The way these cells behave is controlled by genes and signals. An example is the FGF10 gene.

Her team also traced the lineage of heart cells. They found that the second heart field contributes to certain parts of the heart. The first lineage forms all of the left ventricular muscle. This research showed how different groups of cells contribute to both heart muscle and some muscles in the upper body. This work is important for understanding how the heart forms. It also helps in understanding heart problems that babies are born with.

Awards and Honours

• Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), 1979
• Prix Jaffé of the Académie des sciences, 1990
• Member of the Academia Europaea, 1998
• CNRS Silver Medal, 1999
• Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, 2002
• Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, 2008
• Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society for Developmental Biology, 2010
• Officier de la Légion d'honneur, 2011
• International member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 2011
• Fellow of the Royal Society, 2013
• CNRS Gold Medal, 2013
• Commandeur de Ordre National du Mérite, 2013
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2014
• Commandeure de la Légion d'Honneur, 2018
• Grand Officier of the Légion d’Honneur, 2023