Jacek Z Kubiak received his Master's degree in Plant Cytology from Warsaw University in Poland in 1983 and his Ph.D. in Embryology from the same University in 1988, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Institute Jacques Monod, Paris, France, in 1989–1992. Since 1992, Kubiak has been a full-time researcher at the CNRS, France, and pursued his career in this institution. Since 2016, he has headed the laboratory of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology at the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (WIHE) in Warsaw, Poland. His scientific activity focuses on the regulation of the cell cycle, embryo development, and cell differentiation. He is interested in the developmental potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of different origins, cell cycle regulation in stem cells and early embryos, and the mechanisms governing cell differentiation both in MSC and upon gonad differentiation when a binary decision is taken to differentiate into an ovary or testis in the mouse and Xenopus laevis. He is a co-editor of the series “Results & Problems in Cell Differentiation” in Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany.