Susan studied biophysics at the University of Chicago, completing her PhD at the University of Basel in Biochemistry. Following a postdoc on mitotic chromosome structure at the University of Geneva, she led a research group on chromatin organization and replication at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in Lausanne. In 2001, Susan became Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Geneva, and then moved to Basel as Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor at the University of Basel from 2004-2020. Her laboratory studies the functional impact of the spatial packaging of interphase chromatin on heritable gene expression. Since 2021, she is Director of the ISREC Foundation for Cancer Research in Lausanne.

Dr Gasser was elected to the Académie des Sciences de l’Institute de France, EMBO, Leopoldina, the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. She received the EMBO-FEBS’ and Weizmann Institute’s Women in Science awards, the International INSERM award and the Latsis Prize. She was awarded honorary doctorates from University of Lausanne, the Charles University in Prague and the University of Fribourg. She serves on the Board of the ETH Board, the Swiss Science Council and is a member of the Board of Directors of UCB, a global Pharma group.

Find Susan’s full profile here.