Tatjana Sauka-Spengler, Ph.D., a physicist and developmental geneticist, joined the Stowers Institute in 2022 as an investigator.

Growing up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sauka-Spengler completed a B.S. in physics at the University of Sarajevo when the Bosnian war began. She sought asylum in the Czech Republic and was forced to put her studies on hold for several years. After completing a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Paris, her favorite professor convinced her to pursue a second Ph.D. in biology from the University of Paris under Sylvie Mazan, Ph.D., where she focused on developmental and evolutionary biology. Sauka-Spengler then completed a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Marianne Bronner, PhD, at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), where she pioneered key methodologies to study gene regulation in chick embryos and developed novel techniques for elucidating lamprey and zebrafish genomics. Following completion of her postdoctoral work, Sauka-Spengler worked as a senior research fellow and as a professor at CalTech.

In 2011, Sauka-Spengler joined the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford as a group leader and research fellow before being promoted to associate professor in genome biology in 2014 and professor of developmental genomics and gene regulation in 2020.

The Sauka-Spengler Lab investigates genetics, gene regulation, and regulatory networks underlying development and regeneration in a variety of research organisms. Her lab is considered multi-disciplinary and collaborative; she encourages and champions her graduate and postdoctoral students to pursue and achieve their own research ideas and goals.