DrRoberta Migale

I am an Assistant Professor in Embryology and Gamete Biology and Group Leader. We investigate the regulation of gonadal development and function, and its impact on gametes. To understand these processes, we integrate and apply omics approaches to animal models and patient-derived cells. Our mission is to advance scientific knowledge in reproductive and developmental biology to improve reproductive health and fertility outcomes.

Our group aims to answer two questions:

What regulates the assembly and early development of ovarian follicles in health and disease?
Can we identify molecular determinants of oocyte quality to estimate embryo development potential?
We investigate the genetic and epigenetic regulation of gonadal development and function, and its impact on gametes. To understand these processes, we integrate and apply omics approaches including chromatin proteomics, single cell sequencing and ATAC-sequencing, to cells derived from transgenic animal models as well as to samples donated by patients undergoing fertility treatments.
We focus particularly on understanding how the development of the ovarian follicles is controlled within the somatic cell lineages, in health and disease such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and the impact that this process has on long-term female fertility and oocyte quality.
In additional studies with collaborators, we investigate the regulatory mechanisms important for somatic cell fate maintenance using mouse gonads as experimental model.

Before joining Imperial, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics Laboratory, headed by Prof. Robin Lovell-Badge, based at the Francis Crick Institute, London, UK, where I worked on the genetics and epigenetic pathways underpinning sex determination and gonadal development. I have pioneered the use of chromatin proteomic techniques to successfully identify novel DNA binding proteins that are essential for ovarian development and gamete production (Migale et. al., Science Advances, PMID:38517962).
I collaborate with internationally renowned leaders in the field, for example, I worked with Marie-Christine Chaboissier on a study which unveiled the identity of the first female sex determination factor (Science, PMID:37917714). In collaboration with Dr Francis Poulat, I helped to demonstrate that the interplay between a specific transcription factor and an epigenetic modifier is critical for ovarian sex maintenance (PMID:35906245), which further proved that female sexual development is an active, genetically regulated process.
My work has been recognised with prizes by the Society for Reproduction and Fertility, Society for Reproductive Investigation, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist and the Keystone society.