Stem Cell Stars Seminars with Prof. Maria Elena Torres Padilla

Talk Title: "TBA"

When: 15 October 2026 | 15:00 - 16:00 + mingle

Where: Segerfalksalen, BMC A10

Chair: TBA

Following the lecture, take the opportunity to mingle and connect with colleagues and fellow researchers over refreshments at our post-seminar gathering. This is a wonderful opportunity to expand your professional network and share ideas in a relaxed setting. 

All are welcome, and no registration is required!

About the Speaker:

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla 

• Professor for Stem Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU)
• Director, Helmholtz Munich Stem Cell Center
• Director, Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells
• Director of Biomedicine, Helmholtz Pioneer Campus

Throughout her scientific career, Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla has been interested in understanding the mechanisms that regulate cell fate and underlie cellular identity. Her research focus lies on the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate the transitions of cellular plasticity and epigenetic reprogramming after fertilization in mammals, with the long-term goal of understanding how totipotency is established, maintained and how it can be experimentally manipulated. 

Maria-Elena studied Biology at the National University of Mexico, before joining the group of Mary C. Weiss at the Institute Pasteur in Paris for her PhD, where she focused on understanding how specific transcription factors regulate differentiation processes. With the goal of leveraging her expertise and to focus on cell fate regulation from a broader scale, she joined the laboratory of Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, for a postdoctoral stay.

In 2008, she started her own research group, which aims to identify the epigenetic principles underlying epigenetic reprogramming and cellular plasticity in mammals. Their work has led to key contributions for understanding the regulation of chromatin remodelling during early mouse development, and its functional impact for cell potency and reprogramming.

Over the past years, she has been fully committed to promote the next generation of scientific leaders. Following her motto ‘science has no borders’, she is dedicated to bring science closer to society and to promote ethical, legal and societal standards in science to achieve responsible research.

She is not only a group leader at the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES) at Helmholtz Munich, but also its Director, Head of the Stem Cell Center (rotating every year) at Helmholtz Munich, Director of Biomedicine at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, and Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

In 2025 she was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Germany's highest scientific honor. The prize recognized her outstanding research in the field of stem cell biology and early development. 

• More about the Torres-Padilla Lab