Isabelle Vernos obtained a PhD in Biology in 1989 from the University Autonoma of Madrid. In 1992 she moved to the EMBL in Heidelberg where she established her first independent research group in 2001. In 2005, she obtained an ICREA research professor position and she moved to the CRG in Barcelona where is senior group leader. She has published more than 70 papers in international journals. She has served as advisor and referee for several international research organisations. She was nominated as member of the ERC scientific Council in 2011. Since 2013 she chairs the Gender Balance working group of the ERC. Prof Isabelle Vernos was a member of the Advisory Board for Science, Technology and Innovation for the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity from 2012 to 2015.

Research interests

Life depends on the ability of cells to divide while maintaining their genomic integrity. Cell division is therefore a critical process and yet involves the full reversible reorganization of the intra-cellular components. We are currently trying to understand the mechanism and regulatory signalling pathways involved in the transient formation of the mitotic spindle, the microtubule based molecular machine that segregates the chromosomes during cell division.