I studied Biology and Genetics at the UCM (Madrid) and after two years in Denmark and New Zealand working on (alternative) splicing evolution, I did my PhD at the Universitat de Barcelona, where I worked on (regulatory) genomic changes underlying the origin of vertebrates. I then did a short postdoc at Stanford University (USA) and a longer one at University of Toronto (Canada) investigating the function, conservation and regulation of cell type specific alternative splicing, specially of microexons. Our lab is now interested in any of those topics, Evolutionary Medical Genomics, or anything that relates to transcriptomics, development and/or evolution.

Random facts: I love diving and traveling far away, and I try (hard) to play violin.

I studied Biology at the UB and did my PhD in Genetics at Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona, where I studied the mutational landscape of muscular dystrophies. After postdocs at the ULB (Brussels) and the CRG (Barcelona), I became interested in transcriptional regulation in pancreatic islets and metabolism. My current work focuses on how alternative splicing, especially microexons, control hormone secretion and islet-cell physiology, and on exploring splicing modulation as a therapeutic strategy for diabetes. Recently, I also start studying how pancreatic islets have evolved across species with diverse metabolic strategies.

Random facts: I love running, hiking and history.

I am a bioinformatician with a background in microbiology, statistics, and toxicology, but am currently most interested in the interplay between RNA biology and genome evolution. I completed my PhD in 2024 at the University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics (Salt Lake City, USA), where I focused on technical aspects of single-cell RNA-seq analysis. In the Sebe-Pedros & Irimia Labs, I am using comparative approaches to study the evolution and regulation of transcriptional processing mechanisms.

Random facts: I used to rent a house on Chamberlin Avenue (no relation).

I graduated in Biotechnology at the University of Napoli (Italy). Following my Master's studies on the molecular mechanisms of retinal disorders, I moved to the CRG for my PhD, to study photoreceptors and sensory cells from a transcriptomic, alternative splicing perspective. Currently, as a Postdoc, I integrate experimental and computational approaches to identify new splicing mutations in retinal diseases. I am also exploring sensory cell signatures across species with single-cell methods.

Random facts: biking and climbing enthusiast, aspiring guitarist. In my free time, you can easily find me on a mountain.

I completed my PhD thesis at the CSIC Institute of Neuroscience of Alicante, where I studied the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of memory formation. Afterwards, I moved to Stanford University (USA) for a first Postdoc, where I continued researching on Neurogenomics at the single-cell multi-omic level. Following my passion for memory and evolution, I joined the Irimia lab to try to answer a fundamental problem in biology: what are the genomic and regulatory bases that support the de novo origin of cell-types in metazoans, particularly vertebrates.

Random facts: I love skiing.

During my BSc (Hons) Neuroscience at The University of Edinburgh with a voluntary year abroad at McGill University I had the opportunity to be involved in various research projects ranging from brain organoids to fish behaviour. The latter inspired me to commence my PhD in the Irimia lab investigating zebrafish sleep/wake behaviour from a neuroscience perspective while learning more and more about transcriptomics and specifically alternative splicing.

Random facts: Finally started sailing and am aspiring to become the lab pirate.

I studied Molecular Biotechnology as an undergrad at the University of Torino (Italy), but my passion has always been for bioinformatic in general and evolutionary projects in particular. After some research experiences in Sweden and Germany, I started my PhD at the CRG. I recently defended my thesis, where I studied the evolution of tissue-specific transcriptomes across bilaterian animals, with a particular focus on tissue-specific gene expression and alternative splicing. I am currently staying as a Postdoc to close up the remaining projects.

Random facts: I love sunny weather, weird animals and long trips.

I am a biochemist interested in how cells respond and adapt to their cellular/metabolic milieu. After graduating from the University of Cordoba (Spain), I completed my master’s studies and PhD in biomedicine focused on characterizing the deregulation of the RNA metabolism, particularly splicing, in prostate and bladder cancer. I then became part of Irimia's lab, where I am trying to unveil the pathophysiological role of tissue-specific microexons and their regulators, with a special focus on their implication in diabetes.

Random facts: I am a Star Wars fan that is passionate about video/board games, but I really love having scientific discussions while holding a beer.

I am a biologist fascinated by how evolution has sculpted vertebrate genomes to build our embryonic architecture. I have a BSc in Biology from the University of Athens, an MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh and a DPhil (PhD) in Zoology from the University of Oxford, where I investigated early vertebrate developmental genetics. During my first postdoc in the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, I also worked on teleost comparative genomics. My current project focuses on Conserved Non-Coding Elements, ancient genomic regions regulating key developmental genes, aiming to map CNE-gene contacts and understand how they function and evolve.

Random facts: My dream situation is food and games with friends on a remote mountain or beach. I love hiking, cooking and running weird D&D campaigns. I also play the bouzouki and have a black belt in aikido.

I graduated in Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, majoring in neurobiology. Curious about approaching this field from the computational side, I went on to complete a Master’s in Bioinformatics at the UAB and explored cell-type-specific binding mechanisms of bHLH transcription factors during my internship at the Neurogenomics Lab (IMIM). That project sparked my curiosity about the transcriptomic “grammar” shaping cell-type-specific morphologies and functions—like circadian regulation—which I’m now excited to dive into during my PhD.

Random fact: I have minored in Film Studies during my undergraduate degree.

I studied Biology at the University of Valencia (Spain), where I fell in love with evolution. Subsequently, I pursued a Master's in Evolutionary Biology, where I worked on the genetic basis and evolution of color polymorphism in stick insects (CNRS, Montpellier) and on the evolution of toxin-antidote systems in nematodes (IMBA, Vienna). Currently, I am a PhD student at Irimia's lab where I am trying to understand the zygotic genome activation in animals from an evolutionary perspective.

Random facts: I love music

I studied Medicinal Biotechnology at the School of Health in Porto, Portugal, where I'm from. Following my passion on virus I did a Master's in Tropical Heatlh in Lisbon where I studied Hepatitis and Sars-Cov-2. Later I worked as a technician in zebrafish retina development and tissue morphogenesis. Now as a PhD student co-supervised by Manu & Jonas Juan-Mateu (MELIS-UPF) my goal is to study the influence of pancreas microexons in pancreas development and, its conservation across species.

Random facts: I'm a retired classic ballet and contemporary dancer that loves to watch soccer.

I studied a bachelor’s in Biology and a master’s in Molecular Genetics at the University of Seville (Spain). I am interested in the evolution of animals and how new elements are integrated into complex networks. I am doing my PhD supervised by Manuel Irimia and Ignacio Maeso (University of Barcelona), in which I’m studying the domestication of retroviral capsids for neural functions, focusing on the ARC genes, both in tetrapods and dipterans.

Random facts: I love to spend time in Nature and observe animals.

After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Patras in Greece, I moved to Germany to pursue my master’s in Molecular Biosciences at Heidelberg University. During that time, I worked at DKFZ focusing on the epitranscriptome in cancer and naked mole-rats. For my PhD, I joined the lab of Manuel Irimia to understand how cell type specific genetic modules impact the developmental and evolutionary origin of pancreatic beta cells in vertebrates.

During my bachelor's in biotechnology and life sciences, a collaboration project between Pablo de Olavide University (Spain) and Rennes University (France), I was able to do internships in various research groups that boosted my interest in molecular biology and gene regulation. I then studied a MSc in Bioinformatics in the Autonomous University of Barcelona to explore the data analysis and visualization fields within genetics. It turned out that I really enjoy it and so I joined the teams of Manuel Irimia (CRG) and Juana Díez (UPF) as dry lab to study the changes in genetic expression caused by Chikungunya virus infection in both mosquito and human organisms.

Random facts: My ideal afternoon is playing board games with friends, but I also love going indoor climbing or binge-watching any series.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master’s in Physics of Complex Systems from
the University of Torino, my hometown. During my masters’ thesis, I focused on single cell gene expression profiles of embryonic organoids at Helmholtz Munich. After a research experience in Germany, I moved to the CRG for my PhD under the supervision of Manuel Irimia, Mafalda Dias and Jonathan Frazer with the perspective of leveraging transcriptomic and evolutionary information in the context of personalized medicine and medical genomics

Random facts: I love music, I keep trying to play the guitar and the cajon, and I would probably say yes to any sport any friend would propose me.

I studied Systems Biology Engineering at the UPC (Barcelona), where I started working with zebrafish. Thanks to this, I joined the lab as a zebrafish tech and learned a lot about molecular biology. Finding this passion led me to do a Master’s in Molecular Biotechnology, studying pancreas microexons in zebrafish. I am currently the Lab Manager and I finally found my place: being able to help everyone to do great science.

Random facts: I find pottery the most relaxing activity after a crazy lab day; I'm a crazy cat lady, and flowers and plants always make me happy.

I studied Biotechnology at the UAB (Spain). My main interests are transgenic technologies and I was incredibly lucky to work in PSS/GeMS - a transgenic facility - at the NIMR/The Francis Crick Institute under Sarah Hart-Johnson for 6 years. In 2017 I went back to my sunny roots and joined the lab. I really enjoy working in a research lab and applying my technical expertise to contribute to the different projects.

Random facts: I once baked 6 cakes as a test for a friend's party (and the leftovers were very much enjoyed in the lab)

I'm the proud Mexican bioinformatician in love with RNA of the Irimia lab. I did my PhD in Mexico at the UNAM working with alternative splicing and its evolution in legumes. I also spent some time in New York working at Weill Cornell Medicine, where I studied the expression of human endogenous retrovirus in cancer and upon viral infections. I'm involved in the data analysis and results visualizations of many projects of the lab.

Random facts: I'm passionate about football and love to play as goalkeeper.

After completing my PhD in transcriptomics of nervous system tumors at La Paz University Hospital (Madrid), my professional path led me to the University of Michigan where I studied epigenetics of hematologic cancers. Afterwards, and within the same lab, I moved to the University of Miami, where I continued my research. My American experience concluded with another two years at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City studying transcriptomics and mutations in liver cancer. Then, I was transferred to IDIBAPS in Barcelona. In the most recent years, I have been working as a bioinformatician in the Genetics Department at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital.

Random facts: I like mountain biking, cooking, and board games. But above all, I love playing Super Mario with my little kids.

After studying a bachelor in genetics and a master in neurosciences (Barcelona), I completed a PhD on the identification of novel contributions of p21/Cdkn1a to the regulation of the senescent program (IGBMC, Strasbourg). Although most of my thesis work was wet-lab based, it also required me to learn to perform analysis of bulk RNA-seq data, which turned out to be more complex than expected and became a central part of the project. The potential of data analysis and bioinformatic fascinated me and I decided to become a true bioinformatician! I joined the lab to perform my master’s final project (bioinformatics and biostatistics, UOC-UB), where I worked on the development of a pipeline to calculate protein domains in the context of studying the role of splicing from an evolutionary perspective. I stayed as a bioinformatician to work on VastDB, the database of alternative-splicing profiles across cell types and species.

Random facts: I like birds, water and fixing things.

Fascinated by post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene expression, I worked on IRES-mediated translation initiation during my PhD  in the Vagner lab at INSERM (Toulouse, France) and delved into the intricacies of pre-mRNA splicing regulation by diverse RBPs during my time as post-doc, and currently, as Staff Scientist in the Valcárcel lab at CRG (Barcelona, Spain).

I am an evolutionary biologist and statistician interested in how evolutionary constraints propagate across regulatory layers, simultaneously allowing for the phenotypic diversity observed across species.  I believe that combining high resolution multi-omics profiling across species with evolutionary and machine learning frameworks can help us identify functionally essential elements in a context-specific manner. During my PhD, I worked on deciphering molecular evolution underlying cerebral cortex evolution across mammals. I also investigated how to detect selection acting on cis-regulatory elements using pleiotropy as a proxy for functional importance. Currently, I am working on quantifying alternative splicing in human brain organoids and spatial RNA-seq samples of different origins.

Random facts: I love pet rats, dancing, going to the sauna and travelling. I find chopping wood very relaxing :-)

After completing my master's degree in Bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, I did my PhD at the Helmholtz Munich. Here I investigated cellular heterogeneity of pluripotent stem cells using single-cell transcriptomics. Currently at the Irimia & Rajewsky labs I aim to study the spatially regulated alternative splicing, to uncover another dimension of cellular heterogeneity.

Random facts: I sometimes play accordion in the street.