Ryszard Maleszka
Friday, 29 Nov 2013

Lab research focus

The Maleszka Lab is investigating diverse epigenetic mechanisms in the context of behaviour and developmental plasticity, mainly using the honey bee model, but we also have close interactions with labs working on other interesting systems.

Greatest achievement

Much of my lab’s international recognition comes from recent high profile papers on insect epigenetics and genomics, but I believe that my lifetime personal contributions to knowledge will only ever be recognized in retrospect.

Next big thing

In science, we don’t know if something 'big' will be discovered until it actually had been discovered, so we shall see. There is no shortage of ideas, but given available resources not everything is realistically achievable.

What do you see as future challenges for your field of research?

Technical innovation is no longer a limiting factor in biomedical research, indeed, it is a major driver. So the challenge is no longer in generating massive amounts of raw data, but in employing our creative skills to translate them into knowledge. In our case, the genome-based discoveries are being used to develop more nuanced understandings of biological complexity by exploring the multiple pathways that lead to phenotypic expression.