David G. Míguez

David focused on the spatial symmetry breaking, based mainly on the mechanisms proposed by Alan M. Turing. These types of structures have been proposed as the underlying positional information mechanism in many biological systems, specially during early embryo development. He also produced several experimental and theoretical studies with a strong biological motivation, (somitogenesis, pattern formation in the skin of fishes). Among all the contributions during his PhD, there are four Physical Review Letters.

David has worked in a novel application of nonlinear phenomena in the context of biochemical and enzymatic reactions. These type of molecules and reactions are at the core of all processes in biological regulation. As the main result of this period, he developed the first system of pattern formation based on biochemical reactions (PNAS, 1st and co-corresponding author).

During this period, David started to apply the ideas and tools of his previous scientific background performing research in cell lines to understand basic aspect of biological regulation. Simultaneously performing experiments and theoretical research, applying nonlinear dynamics to develop the first synthetic genetic oscillator in eukaryotes (published in Genes & Development), and a patent (1/3 of share) that it is in exploitation by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Orionis Biosciences.

David started to focus in multi-cellular systems, where nonlinear interactions are at the core of self-organization processes and cell differentiation. The system of study is vertebrate neurogenesis, and the balance between proliferation versus differentiation during the early development of the chick spinal cord. He focused in the effect of the ShH and TGFß pathways in neurogenesis, combining experimental studies with nonlinear dynamics and differential equations modeling, (published in Cell Reports and J. Cell Sci).

After receiving a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (Physics panel), David established his lab at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The lab combines nonlinear dynamics, systems biology and developmental biology to study quantitatively basic aspects of the biological regulation of developmental systems, integrating techniques from molecular biology, biophysics and computer vision. During his first 11 years as IP, he has published a total of 27 peer review papers, and one patent.