EMBO fellowship for Guilherme Bastos-Ventura

Guilherme Bastos-Ventura, who joined the lab of Diana Pinheiro as a postdoc last year to study how the timing of embryonic development is controlled, received a prestigious EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Guilherme Bastos-Ventura, postdoc in the Pinheiro lab at the IMP, has been awarded a prestigious EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his research into the molecular mechanisms that determine the timing of embryonic development.

Bastos-Ventura joined the IMP in the summer of last year, and studies how timing is regulated during early development. His project focuses on understanding how different species develop at different speeds—even under identical conditions—by studying embryos of zebrafish, medaka, and their hybrids. Using a combination of live imaging, computational modelling, and biophysical approaches, he aims to discover how cells generate the mechanical forces that sculpt tissues, and whether these forces contribute to species-specific developmental timing. The project is a collaboration with the Pauli lab at the IMP and seeks to illuminate the principles of morphogenesis in teleost fish—the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates.

Bastos-Ventura studied biochemistry at the University of Porto, where he worked with fruit flies to understand the molecular mechanisms that maintain tissue architecture. For his PhD in developmental biology at the University of Copenhagen, he switched to frog embryos, investigating how tissues are built during early development. Now, as a postdoc at the IMP, Bastos-Ventura has moved on to fish, continuing his passion for understanding how life develops.

EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded to outstanding early-career scientists working across borders. In addition to research funding for up to two years, fellows gain access to professional development opportunities such as EMBO’s Laboratory Leadership course and become part of the global EMBO Fellows network. The fellowship provides strong support for international collaboration and scientific excellence.

Further Reading

Lab of Diana Pinheiro

Lab of Andrea Pauli