OUR TEAM
Principal Investigator
Francesco Saverio TEDESCO, MD PhD FHEA FRCPCH
Professor of Neuromuscular Biology and Regenerative Medicine
UCL Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Senior Group Leader
The Francis Crick Institute.
Honorary Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre
UCL GOS Institute of Child Health & Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK
Prof. Tedesco is a clinician-scientist with expertise in paediatric neuromuscular diseases and muscle regeneration. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery with honours at the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) studying muscle stem cell biology at the Institute Pasteur (Paris, France); he was then awarded his PhD at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute of Milan (Italy) and completed his clinical specialty training in paediatrics and paediatric neurology in London. Prof. Tedesco was awarded several major fellowships and research grants, including an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship followed by a Clinical Lectureship, a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant and the leadership of a large 10M EUR Horizon Europe consortium (www.magic-horizon.eu). He received the 2015 Young Investigator Award by the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, the 2020 Simon Newell Investigator of the Year award by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the 2021 MacKeith Prize by the British Paediatric Neurology Association. He is one of the Leads of the London Stem Cell Network.
Sumit has several years of experience in genetic therapies and human stem cell models for muscular dystrophies. He is a senior member of the Tedesco lab developing platforms to study gene therapy vectors using 3D models. He is also the scientific project manager of the MAGIC consortium.
Valentina is a senior member of the Tedesco lab with several years of experience and expertise in congenital myopathies, particularly in centronuclear myopathy. She is developing next-generation humanised platforms to study this severe group of disorders using 3D models.
Victor has joined the Tedesco lab from AstraZeneca (AZ) for a Crick-AZ partnership project.
Aude is a joint PhD student between the Tedesco (Crick) and the Zammit lab at King's College London. She is interested in modelling and studying FSHD using novel complex human(ised) platforms
Leah ZERLIN
PhD Student
Leah is a Crick PhD student working on advanced disease modelling and gene therapies for congenital myopathies. She closely collaborates with the wider team of the MAGIC Horizon Europe consortium.
Daniel MOORE
PhD Student
Daniel graduated In Biochemistry from University College Cork (Ireland) with a year spent at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA). During his undergraduate studies, he undertook projects to create a low-cost biosensor system to detect antibiotics in milk products and to create a series of reporter plasmids to measure IL-8 expression. He undertook an MRes Biosciences - Stem Cell and Developmental Biology in the Tedesco lab, where he has remained for his MDUK-funded PhD. Using patient-derived iPSC lines, he is examining skeletal muscle laminopathies and methods to model the disease in the laboratory.
Tugce is a PhD student in the Tedesco lab interested in identifying common phenotypes in DMD cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue using advanced in vitro models.
Noreen KHOKHAR
PhD Student
Noreen is a joint PhD student of the Tedesco and Zammit (King's College London) labs on the BBSRC LIDo programme and is interested in modelling nuclear envelope diseases using iPSC-derived progenitors. She carried out her undergraduate studies at the University of Westminster where she studied Molecular Biology and Genetics with honours. Noreen graduated from Imperial College London with an MSc in Human Molecular Genetics studying zebrafish haematopoiesis.
Yunsong (Cathy) JIANG
PhD Student
Yunsong (Cathy) graduated from University of British Columbia (Canada) with a BSc degree in Biochemistry in 2018. She then continued her studies at UCL and obtained a MSc in Biomedical Sciences. She is interested in disease modeling using patient-derived iPSC lines and in developing novel gene therapy approach using genome editing.
VISITING RESEARCHERS:
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Chloe FLETT (UCL GOS ICH, London UK)
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Chiara MARCHIORO (University of Padova, IT)
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Paola LAGHETTI (University of Bari, IT)
GRADUATE (MSc/MRes) STUDENTS:
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​Cherry WONG
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Fai CHEN
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Emilia SCHMID
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PREVIOUS MEMBERS
POST DOCTORAL FELLOWS, RESEARCH ASSISTANTS & PHD STUDENTS
SARA BENEDETTI
Sara was a post-doctoral fellow in the Tedesco Lab working on multiple muscle gene and cell therapy projects. Afterwards she joined the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health as Lecturer in Gene Therapy.
MATTIA F. M. GERLI
Mattia was a PhD student in the Tedesco Lab working on hiPSC-derived myogenesis and cell fate modulation. Soon afterwards he joined the Ott Lab at Harvard University as post-doctoral fellow.
HIDETOSHI HOSHIYA
Hidetoshi was a post-doctoral fellow in the Tedesco Lab working on human artificial chromosome engineering. He then joined the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult as Transactions Manager for Asia.
SARAÂ MARTINA MAFFIOLETTI
Sara was a PhD student in the Tedesco Lab working on hiPSC-derived myogenesis and muscle tissue engineering. She then joined the Ditadi Group at the San Raffaele Institute of Milan as an EMBO post-doctoral fellow.
LOUISEÂ ANNE MOYLE
Louise was a post-doctoral fellow in the Tedesco Lab working on muscle stem cell fate modulation. She then moved to the Gilbert Lab at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral fellow.
HEATHER STEELE-STALLARD
Heather was a BBSRC LIDo PhD student in the Tedesco Lab working on muscle disease modelling using hiPSCs. She then joined the University of Oxford for a post-grad medical degree (BM BCh).
STELLA-ORJONA TASO
Stella was a lab manager in the Tedesco Lab. After which she joined Dr. Carlo Sala Frigerio's Lab at the Dementia Research Institute, UCL working on single cell and spatial transcriptomics related to Alzheimer's disease.
MARTINA RAGAZZI
Martina was the first research assistant and lab manager of the Tedesco lab. She had a key role in setting up the lab. She contributed to several projects of gene and cell therapy for muscular dystrophy with human reversibly immortalised or iPSC-derived myogenic cells. She then moved to MolMed in Italy to continue working on gene and cell therapies.
SHILPITA SARCAR
Shilpita was a post-doctoral fellow in the Tedesco Lab working on multiple muscle gene and cell therapy projects. Afterwards she joined MeiraGTx as a senior scientist working on developing novel gene therapies for ocular conditions .
ALEXANDER HENDERSON
Alex was a PhD student of the BBSRC iCASE programme, working on genomic stability in bioprocessing at UCL and GSK. His work resulted in a method that predicts CHO production stability reducing production timelines by >80% and lead to a patent application for GSK.
MOUSTAFA KHEDR
Moustafa was an MDUK-funded PhD student who worked on modelling Duchenne muscular dystrophy using iPSC-derived 3D organoids Outside the lab, Moustafa was the Vice President of Apollo London Society and a Vice President at Innovation Forum.
GIULIA FERRARI
Giulia completed an MDUK-funded PhD in the Tedesco lab combining Human Artificial Chromosomes, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and cell fate modulators to develop an enhanced gene and cell therapy approach to treat muscular dystrophies.
ANGELA HWANG
Angela was a NIHR-funded research assistant who supported the development of disease modelling projects.
LUCA PINTON
Luca was a BBSRC LIDo PhD student in the Tedesco (UCL) and Zammit (KCL) labs. He studies skeletal muscle laminopathies using padvanced models of human scheletal muscle with the ultimate goal of screening new candidate therapies. He was a Coordinator of the London Stem Cell Network as well as Business Development Director at Innovation Forum.
SALMA JALAL
Salma was a postdoctoral fellow who worked on basic and translational projects related to the nuclear envelope.
YULIA LOMONOSOVA
Yulia was a postdoctoral fellow with a interest in combining her expertise in RNA biology and antisense oligonucleotide with novel 3D culture models.