biology

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla rather than just read about it. In short: Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla is a Mexican biologist who is the Director of the Stem Cell Center, the Director of the Institute for Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES), and a Group Leader at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany. Education From 1994 until 1998, Torres-Padilla completed her undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico and earned her Ph.D. from…

Key takeaways

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla is a Mexican biologist who is the Director of the Stem Cell Center, the Director of the Institute for Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES), and a Group Leader at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany.

Education From 1994 until 1998, Torres-Padilla completed her undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico and earned her Ph.D. from the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2002.

Career and research Between 2002 and 2006, she was a postdoctoral fellow at The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, after which she worked as a permanent scientist under Laszlo Tora's supervision. Since December 2008, she has led her research group at the Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France. In January 2016, the lab was relocated to the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany. The primary objective of Torres-Padilla's research activities is to comprehend the manner in which epigenetic information controls the shifts in cellular identity and cellular reprogramming. This is crucial in comprehending pluripotent stem cell biology, particularly their development and origin. The work also endeavors to gain insight into the early stages of embryonic development, human reproduction, fertility, and stem cell biology from a broader perspective. Torres-Padilla is an editorial board member of Science, Development, Genes & Development, and EMBO Reports

Awards and honours 2011 ERC Starting Grant – "NuclearPotency" 2011 EMBO Young Investigator 2015 EMBO Member 2018 Female Award of the German Stem Cell Network 2019 Profiled in Development 2023 Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences 2023 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2025 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2025 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla

In research: Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics European Research Council grantees, Living people, National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla in simple terms?

Why does Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla.