Born in Leskovac in former Yugoslavia, Miodrag Stojkovic has in the past 15 years moved to Germany, then to Britain and has recently arrived in Spain. “That's it for me — no more languages after this one,” he jokes. Indeed, his ability to adapt to new countries has served him well as he takes up his post at Spain's newest biomedical research centre. (see CV)

After receiving his degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Belgrade, Stojkovic left his native country for Germany in 1991, just before the Balkan conflict started. “I had a feeling the war was coming,” he says. For two years he worked as a nurse at the University Hospital of Hamburg before moving to Munich to study veterinary medicine again. Stojkovic had to repeat four semesters of coursework, pass additional exams and attend a language school to get his degree recognized in Germany. He began a PhD programme at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and worked as a nurse during weekends.

After receiving his doctorate, he stayed on and soon became the head of an animal in vitro fertilization lab. He considers his time in Munich to be the most important period of his career. “It was here that I learned all the basic techniques that I am now using for my work on human embryos and human embryonic stem cells,” he says.

Wanting to shift his work from animal embryos to human ones, Stojkovic soon realized that Germany's law restricting work on human embryonic stem cells would force him to move. In 2002 he went to Britain, where he joined the Newcastle Fertility Centre and the Institute of Human Genetics at the Centre for Life. Six months later he derived Britain's first fully characterized human embryonic stem-cell line. He then became a reader at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and three years later he created Europe's first cloned human embryos. Stojkovic also became deputy director of the university's stem-cell biology centre.

Stojkovic first got to know the Prince Felipe Research Centre when he was invited to give a lecture there. He was immediately impressed by the atmosphere and the commitment of its researchers. Realizing that Spain would offer him better opportunities, he decided to move. His belief in the therapeutic potential of stem cells motivates him. “If you believe in something, it will give you power and energy, no matter what political or religious obstacles you might come across,” he says.