Profile picture
Administrative data

Juan Manuel Garcia Arcos

juan.garciaarcos@epfl.ch https://celldynamicslab.com/

Nationality: Spanish

EPFL SV ISREC UPGON
SV 1823 (Bâtiment SV)
Station 19
CH-1015 Lausanne

EPFL SV ISREC UPGON
SV 1823 (Bâtiment SV)
Station 19
CH-1015 Lausanne

Expertise

Biophysics • Cell Biology • Membrane Mechanics • Cytoskeleton Dynamics • Quantitative Imaging • Microfluidics • Cancer Cell Biology • Actin–Membrane Interactions • Cellular Material Properties • Fluorescence Lifetime Microscopy (FLIM) • Microfabrication for Cell Manipulation

Current Work

Cell fragmentation refers to the process by which a a part of the cell splits forming a cytoplast through a combination of actomyosin contractility and localized membrane scission. Unlike apoptotic bodies or smaller extracellular vesicles, these large fragments can move on their own and are enriched in specific molecules.

Fragmentation occurs in diverse contexts: from cancer cells navigating confined environments to megakaryocytes during platelet formation. These fragments can carry signals, metabolites, or organelles that influence surrounding cells. Our research aims to uncover the molecular and physical principles that generate these fragments, understand what cellular material they carry, and determine how they shape communication, metabolism, and disease progression.

To work on this, I started a research group at EPFL on November 2025: "The Cell Dynamics and Fragmentation lab". We are generously hosted at the unit of Pierre Gönczy at the School of Life Sciences of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and funded by an Ambizione grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. 
Juanma is a quantitative cell biologist interested in how the physical properties of cells shape their behaviour. His research focuses on the mechanics of the actin cortex, membrane tension, and the processes that allow cells to move, deform, and fragment. He combines advanced microscopy, microfluidics, and biophysical approaches to build mechanistic explanations of cell dynamics.

Juanma studied Biotechnology in Spain, France, and the United States, followed by two interdisciplinary masters in Paris. He obtained his PhD in Biophysics at Institut Curie, where he worked on confined cell migration and mechanical transitions in the actomyosin cortex. He then joined the University of Geneva as a postdoctoral researcher, where he developed new tools to measure membrane tension and explored how actin dynamics sustains spatial tension gradients in cells. In 2025 he was awarded an SNSF Ambizione grant to establish his independent research group at EPFL.

Alongside research, Juanma has a strong interest in teaching and mentoring. He holds a master’s degree in Education, has coordinated interdisciplinary courses in several countries, and is committed to creating an open, collaborative, and supportive environment for trainees. He has also been active in science outreach and open science initiatives, including co-founding two start-ups focused on biotechnology and open-source scientific tools.

Curriculum vitae

Education and courses

2024                 Workshop in university pedagogy ¦ University of Geneva, Switzerland.
2022                 EMBO practical course: Sensing biophysical properties in living samples using light microscopy ¦ Rennes, France.
2016-2020         PhD, Biophysics (Oct. 31st 2020) ¦ Université de Paris, France.
2019                 Physical Biology of the Cell course ¦ Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA.
2018                  Cell Biology course ¦ Institut Curie and Fundacion Ciencia, Santiago, Chile.
2018                  NEUBIAS Image Analysis course ¦ European Network of Bioimage analysis, Szeged, Hungary.
2017                  Cytoskeleton course ¦ Institut Curie, Paris, France.
2015-2016         Master, Ed-Tech / Public policy and education ¦ CRI, Université Paris Descartes, France.
2014-2015         Master, Interdisciplinary Life Sciences ¦ CRI, Université Paris Diderot, France.
2010-2014         Bachelor, Biotechnology ¦ Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain ¦ Ecole de Biologie Industrielle, France ¦ New Mexico State University, USA.
2008-2010         Secondary School ¦ Maristas San Fernando School, Sevilla, Spain. Exchange program with Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia, EU).

Employment history

11/2025 -                      Group leader, Ambizione fellow. Hosted by the research unit of prof. Pierre Gönczy and the dep. of life sciences of EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland).
11/2021 - 10/2025          Postdoctoral researcher ¦ A Roux lab ¦ University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland).
11/2016 - 10/2021          PhD candidate in Biophysics ¦ M Piel lab ¦ UMR144 Institut Curie (Paris, France).
05/2016 - 11/2016          Consultant for citizen science, science curricula and open science in Chinese schools (SDGo Foundation) and at the EU program Doing It Together Science H2020-709443.
12/2015 - 11/2016          Start-up co-founder and member of the advisory board ¦ UniBiome, 50K€ BPI France seed funding, and KoiScience, 20K€ university seed funding.
12/2015 - 04/2016          Intern in Pedagogy ¦ Mingde high school and Tsinghua University (Shenzhen, China).
09/2015 - 11/2015          iGEM Paris-Bettencourt team advisor ¦ A Lindner lab, INSERM U1001 (Paris, France).
06/2015 - 08/2015          Research staff in Bioproduction ¦ PILI and IndieBio start-up accelerator (Cork, Ireland).
01/2015 - 04/2015          Research staff in Archeal Cell Biology ¦ B Baum lab, UCL (London, UK).
12/2014 - 12/2014          Research staff in Quantitative Cell Biology ¦ P Tran lab, Institut Curie (Paris, France).
07/2014 - 11/2014          Intern at iGEM Paris Bettencourt ¦ A Lindner lab, INSERM U1001 (Paris, France).
09/2013 - 07/2014          Intern in Quantitative Cell Biology ¦ P Tran lab, Institut Curie (Paris, France).
02/2013 - 06/2013          Intern in Recombinant Protein Production ¦ A. Elm’Selmi lab, EBI (Cergy, France).
07/2012 - 02/2013          Intern in Yeast Molecular Biology - 3 months ¦ R Daga lab, CABD (Sevilla, Spain).
08/2012 - 12/2012          Intern in Plant Biochemistry ¦ M O’Connell lab, Chili Pepper Institute (Las Cruces, USA).

Teaching & PhD

Courses

From data to paper: science communication to peers

BIO-707

Participants will learn how to transform their data into clear scientific output for peers. Across three half-day sessions, they will work in an interactive setting on the main steps linking data, figures, paper structure and poster presentation.

Teaching

Supervision of junior researchers
2017-2018         Supervision of the MSc internships of Kevin Gateau (3 months) and Gaurav Shajepal (6 months) (Institut Curie, Paris, France).

Teaching activities
2022-2025         Teaching assistant ¦ Biochemistry Bachelor practicals ¦ University of Geneva, Switzerland.
2022-                Jury for the high school diploma (Maturité) in Geneva, Switzerland.
2024                 16th International Course on Time-Resolved Microscopy (Berlin, Germany).
2024                 German Bioimaging Society FLIM workshop (Munich, Germany).
2018                  Teaching assistant ¦ Synthetic Biology in Master AIV ¦ CRI (Paris, France).
2017                  Course Coordinator ¦ Experimental design in Bachelor FdV ¦ CRI (Paris, France).
2015-2016         Course Coordinator ¦ Biodesign Workshop ¦ Tsinghua U. (Shenzhen, China).