Pathway to Independence - an interview with Josep Mercadal.

Josep Mercadal is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in Pau Formosa-Jordan's group at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) in Cologne, Germany. He is interested in applying his background in physics to fundamental questions in the evolutionary and developmental biology of pattern formation and cell specification. Josep is one of the 2026 fellows on Development's Pathway to Independence programme, which aims to support postdocs in the transition towards establishing their own research groups. We met Josep online to discuss the importance of interdisciplinary diversity for developmental biology, as well as his hopes and plans for his future lab.