Evolution of Cell Type Regulation
Evolution of Cell Type Regulation
I did my PhD under the supervision of Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo at University of Barcelona (Spain), investigating the origin of animal multicellularity from a functional genomics perspective. Then, I spent four years at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), working with Amos Tanay on single-cell genomics of animal cell type diversity. Since 2019, I am a Group Leader at the CRG.
Group Leader
Arnau Sebé-Pedrós
Marta Iglesias
INTREPiD Postdoctoral fellow
In 2016, I obtained my PhD studying Wnt pathway in A-P axis re-establishment during planarian regeneration (University of Barcelona). Then I studied how starvation and mTOR signalling regulates planarian adult stem cells in the Leibniz Institute on Aging (Germany). After this I moved to the Sars Institute (Norway), investigating neural progenitor diversity in Nematostella vectensis. I joined the lab in 2019 to study the developmental dynamics of cnidarian cell type programs.
Xavier Grau-Bové
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral fellow
I obtained my PhD from the University of Barcelona in 2017, under the supervision of Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, investigating the origin of multicellularity in animals. In the past, I worked with David Weetman at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, studying the evolution of insecticide resistance adaptations in Anopheles mosquitoes. Since 2020, I am at the CRG, working on comparative genomics of eukaryotic chromatin.
Iana Kim
Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral fellow
I received my PhD from the University of Bayreuth (Germany) under the supervision of Dr. Claus Kuhn. There, I studied the piRNA pathway in planarian flatworms and its role in post-transcriptional regulation in adult stem cells. In 2020, I joined the Sebé-Pedrós Lab to explore the organization of chromatin architecture in non-bilaterian animals by combining methods of epigenomics and computational biology.
Sebastian Rodrigo Najle
Postdoctoral researcher
I obtained my PhD from the University of Rosario (Argentina), investigating the metabolism of sterols in protists from an evolutionary perspective. Then, I spent five years in Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo’s lab (Barcelona) studying the evolution of animal multicellularity, including scRNA-seq and developing genetic tools in diverse unicellular holozoans. I joined the CRG in 2020 to study the evolution of animal cell type differentiation using different single-cell genomics approaches.
Shani Levy
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral fellow
I obtained my PhD from the University of Haifa (Israel), where I studied developmental processes of the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis with Tamar Lotan. Then I joined the lab of Tali Mass to study another cnidarian species, the stony coral Stylophora pistillata. I joined the Sebe-Pedros lab to investigate the cellular and molecular response of stony corals to different stressors, using variety of approaches including physiological assays and single-cell genomics.
Sean Montgomery
EMBO Postdoctoral fellow
I received my PhD in 2022 studying chromatin dynamics during the life cycle of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, under the supervision of Dr. Frédéric Berger (Gregor Mendel Institute). I joined the lab in 2022 to investigate the composition and function of heterochromatin across the eukaryotic tree of life using proteomics and synthetic biology.
Simón Menéndez-Bravo
Research assistant
In 2016, I obtained my PhD from the National University of Rosario, Argentina. My thesis was centered on bacterial metabolic engineering. After that, I did a postdoc focused on the designing of lipid-producing synthetic metabolic pathways on bacteria. In 2018, I finished my postdoc and started to develop as Lab Technician at the Institute of Molecular Biology of Rosario. In February 2020, I joined the Sebé-Pedrós lab as Senior Lab Technician.
Anamaria Elek
FPI-SO PhD student
I got my master thesis from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, working on codon usage in metagenomics. Before starting a PhD, I worked as a bioinformatician in the sequencing facility at the Institute of Cancer Reserach in London, UK. My PhD project now is exploring regulatory logic - primarily TF binding - in the evolution of cell types in non-bilaterian animals.
Cristina Navarrete
FPI PhD student
As a master student, I investigated the mechanisms of RNA toxicity in Huntington’s disease at CRG (Spain). Then, I worked as a research assistant in the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (Poland), focusing on RNA editing in early development and heart regeneration in zebrafish. Since 2020, I am back in CRG, where I investigate the evolution of eukaryotic chromatin using comparative proteomics and genomics approaches.
Grygoriy Zolotarov
LaCaixa INPhINIT PhD student
I am a medical doctor with a passion for evolutionary biology. During my M.D. studies, I have been investigating the lncRNAs in planarian regeneration at Tel Aviv University, Nematostella neurogenesis at CRG, and RNA biology of enigmatic octopuses at BIMSB ( Berlin). In 2021, I am joining Sebe-Pedros lab to dive into gene regulatory network evolution and to understand basic principles by which cell-type regulatory programs in metazoans evolve.
Laia Montes
FPI PhD student
I am a biologist genetics-focused, graduated at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). During my master's degree, I joined Sebe-Pedrós lab to study cell type specific gene expression in ctenophores. In my PhD, I am developing and applying single-cell genomics approaches to study the evolution of cell types and gene expression in non-bilaterian animals.
Paulina Spurk
LaCaixa INPhINIT PhD student
I obtained my master’s degree from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany in the group of Wolfgang Enard and Ines Hellmann, working on gene expression evolution in non-human primates, using Nanopore cDNA sequencing and single cell ATAC-seq on primate embryoid bodies. In 2022, I joined the Sebe-Pedros lab where I use scATAC-seq and lineage tracing in metazoans to study cell type evolution.
Dídac Cañas Armenteros
Animal technician
Former lab members
Sergi Muyo. Master student (UB).
Monica Varona. Master student (UAB)
Lucia Troiani. Summer intern.