Fiona DOETSCH
Winner of the 2026 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine
Fiona DOETSCH, a Canadian scientist, is awarded the 2026 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine for discovering the identity of neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain and for demonstrating that they enable mammals to adapt to specific physiological states.
Biography
Fiona Doetsch obtained her Bachelor’s at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and her PhD at Rockefeller University in New York City, USA. She was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies before joining Columbia University as faculty in 2003. In 2014, she moved to Switzerland, where she is now the professor of Molecular Stem Cell Biology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.
Works
Fiona Doetsch’s work has shown that neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain are not only shaped by their local environment but are also dynamically orchestrated by distant physiological signals, through a process of “neurogenesis on demand”. Her findings reveal a new level of brain plasticity, with major implications for brain repair and regeneration.
Stem cells in the adult mammalian brain: A new source of brain plasticity
For over a century, it was thought that mammals stop producing neurons not long after birth. Fiona Doetsch discovered the identity of neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain and showed that physiological stimuli can regulate different stem cell pools to generate specific types of neurons and glial cells. Identifying the signals that regulate these stem cells is key to understanding how the brain learns, adapts and heals.
Most stem cells in the adult brain are dormant, yet they remain attuned to signals from their environment. Fiona Doetsch and her team have uncovered networks of signals that precisely govern these stem cells to maintain their dormant state or activate them to divide and differentiate. These signals include molecular pathways active within the cells themselves, cues from nearby blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid, and even inputs from neurons located in distant brain regions that “fire” in different contexts. Strikingly, distinct groups of adult stem cells respond to different situations. Some become activated during pregnancy or from changes in hunger and satiety, while others are triggered during different types of regeneration, with each pool giving rise to specific types of neurons and glia cells. The transient activation of pools of dormant stem cells in different physiological states enables finely tailored remodelling of the adult brain.
By identifying adult neural stem cells and uncovering how they are activated, Fiona Doetsch’s work has revealed their critical role in brain plasticity and behaviour. These discoveries have shaped our understanding of how the brain changes and adapts, with powerful implications for both fundamental biology and medicine, in particular for strategies aimed at brain repair and regeneration.
Louis-Jeantet Foundation’s selection committee:
Dario ALESSI, Geneviève ALMOUZNI, Marc DONATH, Anne FERGUSON-SMITH, Michel GEORGES, Michael HALL, Marc LECUIT, Jan LÖWE, Diane MATHIS, Rene MEDEMA, Peter RATCLIFFE, Caetano REIS E SOUSA, Caroline ROBERT, Alexander SCHIER, Erin SCHUMAN, Markus STOFFEL, Antoine TRILLER, Gisou VAN DER GOOT, Juleen ZIERATH
Contact
Fiona Doetsch
Biozentrum, University of Basel
Spitalstrasse 41
CH-4056 Basel
E-mail: fiona.doetsch@unibas.ch
