Dr. Valérie Hilgers, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and CIBSS member, will take up the professorship of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Basel on the 1st of August 2025.


Valérie Hilgers appointed Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology
CIBSS member accepts offer of professorship at the University of Basel

Dr. Valérie Hilgers, Image: Jürgen Gocke
Academic career
Valérie Hilgers studied biology at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. She completed her PhD at the EMBL in Heidelberg and at the Temasek Life Sciences Institute in Singapore. From 2010 to 2016, Valérie Hilgers was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California in Berkeley (USA) in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Since 2016, Valérie Hilgers is head of a Max Planck Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. Valérie Hilgers received an ERC Starting Grant in 2018.
Research focus
With her research group in Freiburg, Valérie Hilgers studies the genetics and epigenetics of the nervous system, investigating neuron-specific RNA signatures and their role in neuronal development and function. In addition to functional Drosophila genetics, behavioural studies and imaging, the team also uses RNA biochemistry and transcriptomic approaches.
As a member of the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS, Valérie Hilgers is working on the project "Temporal control of transcriptional reprogramming upon heat stress".