A New EMBO Fellow Puts Genes Under the Spotlight

Jose Javier Vázquez Rodríguez is developing light-controlled genetic tools to dissect the brain

• Two-year EMBO fellowship: Jose Javier Vázquez Rodríguez has joined the Systems Neuroscience & Neuroengineering lab.
• A genetic light switch: his research uses genetic code expansion to build proteins that switch a gene on when triggered by light.
• Single-cell resolution: the approach could help test what individual neurons do.

Jose Javier Vázquez Rodríguez begins a two-year fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics under the EMBO Fellowship Programme, a prestigious scheme run by the European Molecular Biology Organization that supports early-career researchers. Jose will spend the next two years in the Neuroscience & Neuroengineering lab led by Jennifer Li and Drew Robson.

Jose's path to research was not what he had originally planned. He set out to become a physician but was not immediately accepted into medical school. Instead, he enrolled in Medical Science, a program designed to provide students with a biological foundation for medicine. “The good thing was that I had a lot of electives and was free to pick,” he says. Among them, genetics stood out. “It was really fun, especially the molecular side of it.” During his honors project on genetic code expansion — a technique that reprograms cells to build proteins using additional building blocks beyond the twenty amino acids found in nature — something clicked. He had found other topics interesting before, but this was the first time he felt truly captivated. He pursued it through a master's and a Ph.D., both at the University of Edinburgh.

From worms to zebrafish

During his PhD studies, Jose used genetic code expansion in roundworms to build genetic light switches. He worked with recombinases, enzymes that researchers use as tools to activate a chosen gene by snipping out a piece of DNA that's blocking it. Jose engineered these enzymes to remain inactive until a beam of light switches them on. The result: a chosen gene in a single cell, can be activated by simply shining light on it.

For his fellowship, Jose is adapting the technique for a new animal. “Simple model organisms like nematodes, yeast, or bacteria are somewhat limited,” he explains. Zebrafish allow him to ask bigger questions, and neuroscience needs tools that can control single neurons individually. That's the gap Jose wants to fill. “I'm now building this light-controlled system in zebrafish,” he says, “so that we'll be able to switch a gene on in exactly the neuron we want, at exactly the moment we want.” Combined with the lab's imaging tools, which already reveal which neurons are active during a given behavior, this addition should make it possible to pinpoint the role of individual neurons.

Jose is delighted to be part of the Neuroscience & Neuroengineering lab, which he calls “top of the line for zebrafish research”. He is developing the toolkit as his own project, and plans to collaborate with lab members who need it for their own questions. One example: place cells, the neurons that form an animal's internal map of space. If you switch one off with light, does the rest of the system remap around it? Does a neighboring cell take over its role? Questions like these have been difficult to ask before, but light-controlled gene switches could help answer them.

Settling in, roaches included

Jose grew up in Lanzarote, where childhood summers were spent handline fishing. It was a fond memory, though as an adult he was ready to see more of the world.

When he's not in the lab, Jose can be found climbing or hiking. He also keeps somewhat unconventional pets: a colony of roaches. As for where he'll end up after the fellowship, he has no set plans, though Germany has made a good impression. One thing is for sure: Jose wants to stay in research. “I like building tools for animal research that other people can use,” he says. Genetic code expansion is the area in which he sees himself continuing to work.