Eugene Berezikov

Eugene Berezikov studied natural sciences at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia), specializing in molecular biology, and graduated with honors in 1997. He received PhD degree in cell biology from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics (Novosibirsk, Russia) in 2000. For his postdoctoral studies he joined the laboratory of Prof. Ronald Plasterk at Hubrecht Institute, where he developed a method for homologous gene targeting in C. elegans and performed series of works on discovery and characterization of small RNAs and microRNAs in particular.

In 2007 he was appointed as a group leader at Hubrecht Institute and started to work with the flatworm Macrostomum lignano. This animal is emerging as a powerful model organism for research on regeneration, stem cell biology and ageing due to its high regeneration capacity, experimental accessibility and amenability to genetic manipulation. In order to investigate regulation of neoblasts – the stem cells of the animal – by small RNAs and other molecular pathways, Berezikov group is developing genomic tools and resources for M. lignano, including de novo genome sequencing and annotation, identification of neoblast markers, transgenics, and forward and reverse genetics methods.

Eugene is an EMBO Young Investigator from 2010. In 2012, he was awarded with a 1,5M€ grant by the European Research Council for his research project on relations between stem cells and ageing using M. lignano as a model.

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