Dr. Rodriguez-Fraticelli received his PhD from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 2014, working with Dr. Miguel Alonso and Dr. Fernando Martin-Belmonte on epithelial morphogenesis. In 2015, Alejo moved to Harvard University to train as a postdoc with Dr. Fernando Camargo in hematopoietic development and lineage tracing. During this time, Dr. Rodriguez-Fraticelli began a long-lasting collaboration with Dr. Caleb Weinreb and Dr. Allon Klein at Harvard Medical School, characterizing blood stem cells using single-cell transcriptome and lineage profiling. In 2021, Dr. Rodriguez-Fraticelli was recruited as a junior group leader at IRB Barcelona, expanding the Programme of Aging and Metabolism. During his career, Dr. Rodriguez-Fraticelli received major grants and awards, including the LSRF Research Fellowship, the ASH Scholar Award, the LLS Special Fellowship, the NHLBI K99 Award, the Cris Excellence Award, the ASEICA Junior Award, the EMBO YIP award, and the ERC Starting Grant.
Research interests
Hematopoiesis has long been modeled as a stepwise hierarchical process, where all blood arises from a group of rare multipotent stem cells. In recent years, we have made major contributions that have challenged this paradigm, revealing an extensive heterogeneity among individual stem cells and their differentiation trajectories. To study heterogeneity, our lab develops advanced genetic tools that allow the simultaneous recording of progeny and state for thousands of single cells at a time. Using these methods, termed single-cell lineage tracing, we have uncovered distinct gene regulatory states linked with heritable fates during regeneration. More recently, we have been focused on how these differences in fate behaviors arise during development and how they influence cellular responses to leukemic mutations and aging. We propose that mapping cellular phylogenetics will lead to a revolution in understanding and treating disease.
Selected publications
- Scherer M, Singh I, Braun MM, Szu-Tu C, Sanchez Sanchez P, Lindenhofer D, Jakobsen NA, Körber V, Kardorff M, Nitsch L, Kautz P, Rühle J, Bianchi A, Cozzuto L, Frömel R, Beneyto-Calabuig S, Lareau C, Satpathy AT, Beekman R, Steinmetz LM, Raffel S, Ludwig LS, Vyas P, Rodriguez-Fraticelli A*, Velten L*. 2025. 'Clonal tracing with somatic epimutations reveals dynamics of blood ageing', Nature. vol. 643, no. 8071, pp 478-487. *co-supervising and co-corresponding author
- Singh I, Fernandez-Perez D, Sanchez PS & Rodriguez-Fraticelli AE 2025, 'Pre-existing stem cell heterogeneity dictates clonal responses to the acquisition of leukemic driver mutations', Cell stem cell, 32 - 4.
- Rettkowski, J et al. 2025, 'Modulation of bone marrow haematopoietic stem cell activity as a therapeutic strategy after myocardial infarction: a preclinical study', Nature cell biology, 27 - 4.
- Rodriguez Fraticelli AE*, Sánchez PS, 2025, 'Single-Cell Lineage Tracing and Clonal State-Fate Analysis.' Methods Mol Biol. vol. 2886, pp 65-84. *corresponding author
Selected research activities
Organized the 1st EMBO Workshop on Single-cell Lineage Tracing, in Sant-Feliu de Guixols, Girona, 2025.
Received the EMBO Young Investigator Programme award.