[9] Her laboratory carried out the first systematic inactivation of the majority of genes in an animal through constructing and screening a genome-wide RNA interference library for the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans.

[13] Research in Ahringer's lab investigates the control of gene expression and genome architecture in development, using C. elegans as a model system.

[14] Ahringer is from Miami, Florida[15] and was educated at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry in 1984.

Ahringer's research group studies the regulation of chromatin structure and function in gene expression and genome organization using the nematode C. elegans as a model to understand development and disease.

[26] She serves as a member of the scientific advisory board of the Medical Research Council (MRC) along with many other eminent scientists.