Selected by EMBO for the high standard of his research in molecular biology, Milan will receive financial support for three years along with other benefits designed to help him attract new collaborations and funding in the early years of his independent career. One of Milán’s immediate goals will be to better understand the mechanisms that control size and shape in animal development, using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as model system for his studies.

This year’s Young Investigator Programme, an initiative with an established worldwide reputation of excellence, has selected a total of eighteen of Europe’s most talented young researchers. The three-year programme, which targets scientists who are within the first four years of having set-up their laboratories, offers a range of academic, practical and financial benefits designed to smooth the transition for young researchers in the early years of their independent careers. The objective of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme is to give selected young scientists an advantage through recognition by EMBO.

Marco Milán, 39, earned his degree in Biology in 1991 from the Complutense University of Madrid and his PhD in 1995 from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He joined the laboratory of Stephen Cohen at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in 1997, where he became staff scientist three years later. Since 2003, Milan has been leading the Developmental Biology of Drosophila group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, a research team focused on the study of the signals that control size, shape and pattern in animal development, using the fruit fly wing as model system.