DrVeronique Azuara

Véronique Azuara is an Associate Professor/Reader in Stem Cell Biology, Head of Section for Gonadal and Developmental Biology at Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine, and an Associate Member of the Development and Stem Cell Interest Group at the Francis Crick Institute.

Véronique is originally from Paris where she obtained her PhD for work on the molecular genetics of lymphocyte development at the Institute Pasteur (Department of Immunology). She then crossed the channel and joined the MRC London Laboratory of Medical Sciences in the group of Professor Dame Amanda Fisher. Here, she explored as an MRC Postdoctoral Fellow how chromatin ‘shutdown’ contributes to lineage restriction and maintenance of cell fate identity through development. Notably, her work in embryonic stem cells, among others, pioneered the discovery that many inactive developmental regulators carry bivalent chromatin structure being enriched for repressive marks and indicators of active chromatin. This bivalent marking is proposed to prime lineage-specifying genes for future activation yet prevent their premature expression through Polycomb-mediated repression.

In 2006 Véronique started her independent research group at the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology (IRDB) of Imperial College London supported by an MRC Collaborative Career Development Award in Stem Cells and a BBSRC New Investigator Award. Her group has since focussed on understanding how cell potency and differentiation are balanced in stem cells and in the developing mammalian embryo. In the early embryo, this implies unravelling how cell heterogeneity arises, how pluripotency is achieved and safeguarded while promoting the formation of essential extra-embryonic lineages, and how the pluripotent embryonic tissue itself is remodelled upon implantation in preparation for all subsequent differentiation events and foetal growth. Combining in vivo studies with embryo stem cell models, her group pursues a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to address these questions from transcriptional, epigenetic, and metabolic perspectives. Most recently, her group uncovered a previously unrecognized link between lipid metabolism and the morphogenesis of pluripotent stem cell progenitors during peri-implantation development, with a specific focus on lipid droplet biology.

Throughout her journey, Véronique grew an active interest in developing others as the mother of two daughters, a caring research group leader and mentor, teaching module leads and tutor, a university-wise champion for early career researchers as well as acting as departmental lead in research culture/Athena Swan. In 2024, she was awarded an Imperial President’s Medal for Excellence in Research Environment (Ethics, Culture, and Sustainability).

Invisible disability and neurodiversity (auditory processing disorder/APD and co-occurring dyslexia).