ProfessorJuanma Vaquerizas

I am interested in how cells gain access to genetic information as they adopt new identities during development. My research focuses on the mechanisms that control genome function during cell fate decisions, with particular emphasis on early embryogenesis and gametogenesis. We study how chromatin architecture, epigenetic state and transposable elements shape gene regulation as cells transition between developmental states.

My laboratory works at the interface of developmental biology, genomics and computational biology. We combine experimental and computational approaches to capture genome regulation across scales, from single cells to chromosome architecture. This includes single-cell and spatial multiomics, low-input chromatin conformation methods such as Pico-C, and machine-learning approaches for analysing high-dimensional genomic data. A central aim of our work is not only to describe developmental transitions, but to uncover the principles that organise genome function in vivo.

Our recent work has shown that genome architecture emerges in an ordered way during early development, including before zygotic genome activation, and is extensively remodelled during commitment to gametogenesis. More recently, we have used single-nucleus multiomics and spatial transcriptomics in human testis to define gene regulatory networks in spermatogenesis and to link non-coding variation to candidate regulatory mechanisms underlying male infertility.

I studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and completed my PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), where I worked on the human transcription factor repertoire. I then carried out postdoctoral research at EMBL-EBI on chromatin regulation in Drosophila, before establishing an independent Max Planck Research Group in Münster in 2012. In 2019 I moved my laboratory to the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London, where I am Chair in Developmental and Regulatory Genomics, MRC Investigator and Programme Leader, and Academy of Medical Sciences Professor.