25 April 2025 – Ingrid Rosenburg Cordeiro was always intrigued by the regenerative capabilities of salamanders enabling them to regrow their limbs. Her research seeks better understanding of the origin and type of cells involved in the regeneration process.
She is currently adapting DNA barcoding for use in newts, a semi-aquatic type of salamander with the widest repertoire of regenerative abilities among vertebrates. The barcodes are short DNA sequences that integrate into cells, allowing her to track their lineage, division, and eventual function. While this technique has been used in mice and zebrafish, it had not been applied to salamanders.
“It is an exciting challenge,” Rosenberg Cordeiro says. “I hope that this work can ultimately uncover insights that may one day lead to novel regenerative strategies in medicine.”
Her EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship was a significant stepping stone in providing stability during a transitional period in Rosenburg Cordeiro’s career. “The understanding and the flexibility of the staff members during my application process, particularly when I was managing parental leave and pandemic-related relocations, were invaluable,” she says.
Her Fellowship salary also allowed her to access healthcare and other benefits, making her transition to Sweden smoother and more secure than would have been the case with a tax-exempt grant.
Taking on a postdoctoral role in a new country comes with challenges but EMBO’s support helped her to remain focussed.
“Coming from a very different scientific culture, I was not prepared to experience the strong emphasis on independence that you can find here in Sweden,” Rosenburg Cordeiro says. “Researchers are expected to manage their own time, ideas and experiments, and I had experienced more structured environments in Brazil and Japan where I did my master studies and PhD, where guidance is more frequent.”
The courses offered through the EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship also provided her with practical skills that she could immediately apply. “When my supervisor asked for help reviewing a paper, I felt confident and prepared,” she says.
