Prof. Bruno Reversade’s research is focused on uncovering the molecular basis of unusual traits by studying genetic outliers. In simpler terms, his teams will investigate people that that age-prematurely to find drivers of normal human aging or study forms of self-healing cancers that to find innovative therapies. This approach is not confined to deleterious alleles, but also spans the other side of the spectrum: beneficial traits. For instance, as a Branco Weiss Fellow, Prof. Reversade identified a form of hereditary identical twinning, which can be considered as a form of natural reproductive cloning in humans. This has allowed to document a novel signaling pathway that operates in the pre-implantation human embryo to maintain pluripotency. With therapeutic intervention in mind, his teams have made use of extraordinary phenotypes/genotypes to harness the power of the human genome to develop original solutions to unmet medical needs.