Maria Rostovskaya

Maria studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Moscow State University, Russia. She obtained her PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions in bone marrow skeletal progenitors. During this time, she also developed tools for genetic modification in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), becoming the first to achieve BAC transgenesis and one of the pioneers of gene targeting in these cells.

Maria carried out her postdoctoral research at the Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge (with Professor Austin Smith), and at the Babraham Institute (with Professor Wolf Reik), Cambridge, UK. During her postdoc, she established an hPSC-based in vitro model of human embryonic epiblast development that recapitulates its molecular dynamics, morphogenesis, and timing. Using this system, she uncovered mechanisms underlying the first cell fate decision of the epiblast and the emergence of the extra-embryonic tissue amnion in the human embryo. This work provided a much-sought in vitro model of human peri-implantation development for the field and provided key insights into the evolution of embryonic morphogenesis and developmental timing. She was awarded the Sir Michael Berridge Prize (2022) and the Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Prize (2021) for these contributions.

In 2026, Maria received a Medical Research Council Career Development Award to establish her research group at the Gurdon Institute.