Research Perspective
Our group studies the complex causal pathways through which genes, drugs, stress, and diet influence aging. We combine molecular genetics and functional genomics approaches with quantitative modelling, drawing on concepts from statistical physics and complex systems theory. In this way, we develop and apply new, interdisciplinary approaches to study how our genes, environment, and random chance intersect to determine how and how fast we age.
Methodologically, we pursue a mixture of bulk, single-individual, and single-cell transcriptomics, CRISPR genome editing ( in particular, developing constructs that allow us to precisely modulate aging in vivo ), C. elegans genetics, high-throughput imaging, fluorescent imaging, statistical and complex-systems modelling, machine learning, and math.
Research Environment
Our group is a member of the Systems Biology programme at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), giving us excellent colleagues and access to all of the CRG’s world-class core facilities.
The city of Barcelona is a technical and biomedical hub with many research institutes, the IRB, the photonics institute, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, as well as several universities including the UPF , UB, and the UAB and a small but lively biomedical startup ecosystem. Barcelona also has a thriving makers scene, which is great for the members of our group building custom high-throughput imaging apparatus.
The CRG itself occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the biomedical research building PRBB, located on the beach a short walk from the heart of downtown Barcelona.