Jean-Francois Darrigrand obtained a life-science engineering degree from AgroParisTech and completed a Master degree from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CRI, Paris Descartes University).

This program enabled him to delve into the fields of cell biology, embryonic development and quantitative image analysis by doing a rotation in the laboratories of Dr. Bruno Cadot and Dr. Edgar Gomes (Myology Institute, Paris), Dr. Sharagim Tajbakhsh (Pasteur Institute, Paris) and Dr. Annemiek Cornelissen (Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Paris Diderot University).

Building on these experiences he undertook his PhD training in Bruno Cadot’s group, during which he described the cell dynamics and developmental signals shaping the pulmonary artery and aorta in the mouse embryo (2015-2019).

For his postdoctoral training, he moved to the United Kingdom to join Pr. Francesca Spagnoli's lab (King’s College London), where he continued exploring the mechanisms of organ morphogenesis in a different system: the pancreas (2019-2023).

Jean-Francois Darrigrand noticed that the design principles underlying pancreas branching morphogenesis were mostly unknown and that no in vitro system was available to study the dynamics of this process in the human context. Addressing these shortcomings, he unravelled key cellular mechanisms and developmental signals regulating pancreas branching morphogenesis and generated a human stem-cell derived organoid model to study pancreas morphogenesis in vitro.

In 2024, he joined the lab of Pr. Jeremy Green (King’s College London) to further investigate the diversity of cellular mechanisms and mechanical regulators which control organ morphogenesis in mammals, using the mouse embryonic body wall as a model system.