Prof. Dr. Maria Elena Torres-Padilla

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Education

• 1994-1998 University Degree in Biology. Faculty of Sciences, National University of Mexico

Advanced Professional Degrees

• 2008 Habilitation. Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
• 2002 Ph.D. Université Réné Descartes-Paris V. Paris, France, Advisor: Mary C. Weiss, Institut Pasteur

Positions Held

• since 2016 Director, Institute of Epigenetics & Stem Cells,Helmholtz Zentrum Munich
• 2016 Professor (W3). Chair of Stem Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
• 2012 Nominated Director of Research (INSERM)
• 2010-2012 Deputy Director of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Department, IGBMC, Strasbourg
• 2009 Independent Group leader, IGBMC, Strasbourg, France
• 2007 Nominated Chargee de Recherche (INSERM)
• 2006-2008 Senior Scientist with Dr. Laszlo Tora, IGBMC, Strasbourg, France
• 2002-2006 Postdoctoral EMBO fellow with Dr. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2001 Visitor at the University of California, Riverside with Dr. Frances M. Sladek

Honours and Awards

• since 2019 Honorary Professor, University of Aarhus Denmark
• 2018 Female Award of the German Stem Cell Network
  
• 2015 Elected EMBO Member
• 2015 Selected as Extraordinary Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum
• 2014 Prize Fondation Schlumberger pour l’Education et la Recherche
• 2014 Prize Fondation Université de Strasbourg-Cercle Gutenberg
• 2011 EMBO Young Investigator
• 2011 ERC Starting Grant awarded
• 2011 EpiGeneSys Network of Excellence FP7 (elected RISE1 member)
• 2009 Avenir Grant (for Young Group Leaders)
• 2003-2005 EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship
• 1999-2001 Doctoral fellowship from CONACYT awarded
• 1998 Gabino Barreda Award, National University of Mexico

Editorial Activities

• since 2021 Editorial Board Member; Science
• since 2021 Editorial Board Member; Cell Stem Cell
• since 2019 Editorial Board Member; Development
• since 2016 Editorial Board Member, Genes & Development
• since 2014 Guest Associate Editor, Public Library of Sciences (PLOS) Biology and PLOS Genetics
• 2018-2021 Editorial Board Member; Journal of Cell Biology
  
• 2011-2015 Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports Nature

Other selected Professional Activities

• 2019-2020 Work Package Leader and Founder Member of the LifeTime European Initiative
  
• since 2018 Co-coordinator of the EpiGene2Sys Network
  
• since 2018 Steering Board Member, Single Cell Omics, Germany
• since 2018 Member of the Think Tank of the Helmholtz Association
  
• since 2016 Founder and Board Member of epigenetics@hmgu
  
• 2016 Foreign coordinator of the International Research Group (GDRi) on Epigenetics
• 2012-2015 Founder and Coordinator of the Nuclear Dynamics and Signalling Programme, IGBMC, Strasbourg
• 2010-2016 Member of the ‘Laboratory of Excellence’ INRT Integrated Biology: Nuclear Dynamics, Regenerative and Translational Medicine
• 2013-2015 Member of the Steering Committee of the International Ph.D Programme of the IGBMC
• 2003-2006 Member of the of the Faculty of Biology, University of Cambridge
• 2011 Founding organiser for the EMBO Workshop Series on Histone Variants & Genome Organiser
• 2010 Member of the Steering Committee for the Master Programme on Developmental Biology, University of Strasbourg

Selected CRC project-related publications

Burton A, Brochard V, Galan C, Ruiz-Morales ER, Rovira Q, Rodriguez-Terrones D, Kruse K, Le Gras S, Udayakumar VS, Chin HG, Eid A, Liu X, Wang C, Gao S, Pradhan S, Vaquerizas JM, Beaujean N, Jenuwein T, Torres-Padilla ME (2020) Heterochromatin establishment during early mammalian development is regulated by pericentromeric RNA and characterized by non-repressive H3K9me3. Nature Cell Biology, Jul; 22(7):767–778.

Rodriguez-Terrones D, Hartleben G, Gaume X, Eid A, Guthmann M, Iturbide A,  Torres-Padilla ME (2020) A distinct metabolic state arises during the emergence of 2-cell-like cells. EMBO Reports, Jan 7;21(1):e48354.

Guthmann M, Burton A,  Torres-Padilla ME (2019) Expression and phase separation potential of heterochromatin proteins during early mouse development. EMBO Reports, Dec 5;20(12):e47952. doi: 10.15252/embr.201947952

Borsos M^*, Perricone SM^*, Schauer T, Pontabry J, de Luca KL, de Vries SS, Ruiz-Morales ER, Torres-Padilla ME^{§ ‡}, Kind J^§ (2019) Genome-lamina interactions are established de novo in the early mouse embryo. Nature. May 30; 569:729-733. (^*equal contribution; ^§co-corresponding authors; ^‡ lead contact)

Rodriguez-Terrones D, Gaume X, Ishiuchi T, Weiss A, Kopp A, Kruse K, Penning A, Vaquerizas JM, Brino L, Torres-Padilla ME (2018) A molecular roadmap for the emergence of early-embryonic-like cells in culture. Nature Genetics, Jan; 50(1): 106-119.