Omaya Dudin, new assistant professor in the biochemistry department

The School of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Geneva is delighted to announce the arrival of Omaya Dudin as a new assistant professor in the Department of biochemistry in August 2024.

Prof. Omaya Dudin. Crédits : Dudin, UNIGE.

After studying cell biology and microbiology at the University of Grenoble, Omaya Dudin joined Professor Sophie Martin's laboratory at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) for his doctoral research, defending a thesis on cell fusion mechanisms in fission yeast in 2016. From 2017 to 2020, thanks to the SNSF Mobility and Marie Curie grants, he carried out postdoctoral research at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, exploring the physiology of unicellular animal-like protists. In 2020, he launched his independent research and set up his laboratory at EPFL, funded by an SNSF Ambizione grant, pursuing his research into the evolutionary mechanisms that enable unicellular organisms to become multicellular.

The Dudin Lab is interested in the cellular and evolutionary mechanisms that have enabled certain unicellular organisms to become multicellular. By focusing in particular on Ichthyosporea, a protist recognised as close relative of animals, the team hopes to understand how multicellular development evolved and how this key transition in the history of life on Earth potentially led to the appearance of the first animals.

The School of chemistry and biochemistry  welcomes Prof. Omaya Dudin and his group to the Department of biochemistry at the University of Geneva, and wishes them every success in their research.