Vincent Pasque

Vincent grew up in Belgium and West Virginia, where he was exposed to the extraordinary biodiversity of temperate forests. This, Vincent tells us, is probably what led him to study biology and biochemistry at the University of Liège, Belgium, where he did his Master's thesis in 2005, working on pancreas and bone development using zebrafish as a model system in the laboratory of Professor Joseph Martial.

Vincent joined the Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD Programme in Developmental Biology at the University of Cambridge in 2006, where he worked with Drosophila, chicks, frogs and mice. Vincent carried out his PhD with Professor John Gurdon; he focused on the mechanisms of resistance to reprogramming adult cells into embryonic cells, using oocytes of Xenopus laevis as a model system. Working at the Wellcome Trust/CRUK Gurdon Institute, Vincent identified a protein, macroH2A, responsible for resistance to nuclear reprogramming.

Vincent is now undergoing postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Kathrin Plath at the University of California, Los Angeles. The aim of his current research is to better understand the factors and mechanisms that maintain the differentiated state of cells, which oppose the reprogramming and diseased state of adult cells.

Vincent says: "I strongly believe that beautiful images can help promote scientific research and ignite the fascination of the general public for science, as they did for me as a child. I have always been captivated by the beauty and complexity of living organisms. This is mainly thanks to my parents, who have always been keen to take me on long walks in forests, on mountains and by the seaside. The beauty of microscopy is that it can transport us to the incredibly complex and aesthetically exquisite world of life, very much reflecting the outcome of natural selection, through millions of years, to give rise to all living organisms of the present times."

To find out more about Vincent's images, click on the thumbnails below.