Danielle Dhouailly was born in Tunisia. Her first degree was in Biology from Paris University and led to her love of genetics and embryology. She moved to Grenoble in 1966 to carry out her PhD research with Philippe Sengel, who was then starting his own laboratory focusing on skin differentiation. After her PhD, Danielle obtained her `Thèse d'Etat' in France and then went to Canada and the United States for her postdoctoral studies, working first with Margaret Hardy, then with Roger Sawyer and finally with Henry (Tung-Tien) Sun.
Early in her research career, Danielle found that a continuous dialogue between the epidermis and the dermis is required for the formation of cutaneous appendages. She went on to define the steps of dermal induction during feather and hair morphogenesis as well as the role and molecular basis of epidermal competence. She is currently involved in examining how multilayered epithelia of ectodermal...
