����Vlog�ٷ� Cambridge: Dr Carlos F. Ceballos-González

Position Governing Body Fellow Junior Research Fellow
School Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute
Email cfc52@cam.ac.uk

Carlos is a bioengineer with interdisciplinary expertise in tissue engineering, pluripotent stem cells, and gene editing. He aims to understand how embryos build tissues and apply these principles to engineer organs in the laboratory.

Carlos was awarded his PhD in Biotechnology by the Monterrey Institute of Technology with Honors. His PhD dissertation was awarded the Outstanding Thesis recognition by his alma mater, and it was selected as the best PhD thesis in Engineering and Technology by the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2024. His PhD work allowed him to publish nine original articles. He is also listed as a co-inventor in one patent in Mexico and two patent applications in the USA. During his PhD, Carlos was a visiting graduate researcher at the University of Cambridge, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation in the USA. He also holds an MSc in Biotechnology with Summa Cum Laude recognition, and an upper-class BSc in Engineering.

Carlos is trained in a wide variety of tissue engineering approaches, including 3D printing, micro-physiological systems, microfluidics, and computational-aided design. He also has expertise in advanced in-vitro 3D models, biomaterials, and stem cell biology. His skill set also includes gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9, gene expression analysis, confocal imaging, and programming using Python and R.

Carlos has been a Research associate at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, since June 2024. He was previously a Secondary school teacher in Colombia from August 2014 to June 2015. He was also a teaching assistant from February 2014 to June 2014 during his bachelor's studies.

Carlos is an elected EMBO postdoctoral fellow funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization. His fellowship will start on the 1 February 2026. He is also a member of the UKRI Talent Peer Review College since 2025.

Imagine a future where thousands of patients on organ transplant lists receive new organs built in the laboratory. Carlos’ research brings this vision closer by understanding how organs are built naturally during gestation. Because these early stages of life cannot be studied in utero, he recreates them using synthetic embryos made of stem cells. These hand-made embryos are fully manipulable, they are not considered living entities, and can recapitulate aspects of organ formation, offering a powerful platform for manufacturing organs.

Carlos uses an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of bioengineering, stem cell biology, and gene editing. First, he fabricates synthetic embryos using stem cells and 3D-bioprinting. Stem cells are the building blocks of synthetic embryos and 3D-bioprinting is the ‘hand’ that accommodates these blocks across space. Then, he analyzes how synthetic embryos evolve over time when exposed to environmental factors.

It is important to mention that the behavior of stem cells also relies on their genes. A gene is an instruction that modulates cell behavior. When a specific gene is inactive, the cell will behave according to the instructions from other genes. Therefore, Carlos also uses gene editing to inactivate specific genes and analyze which ones are relevant for tissue formation.

Besides his research activities, Carlos currently participates as a mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students from the Latin American community in the USA. He also serves as a UKRI Talent Peer Reviewer for the evaluation of research proposals submitted by early-career researchers in the UK.