OUR TEAM
Principal Investigator
Francesco Saverio TEDESCO, MD PhD FHEA MRCPCH
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
Dr. Tedesco is a clinician-scientist with a special interest in neuromuscular disorders and muscle regeneration. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery with honours at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy). He continued his studies at San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Milan, Italy), where he obtained his PhD in 2010 studying novel gene and cell therapy strategies for muscular dystrophy. Before and during his PhD he was a visiting scientist at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and afterwards he coupled post-doctoral research and clinical training between Italy (San Raffaele Hospital, Milan) and the UK (UCL and Partner Hospitals). He received several awards and research grants, including an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Paediatrics and then a Clinical Lectureship in Paediatric Neurology, the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy 2015 Young Investigator Award, a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 2020 "Simon Newell" Investigator of the Year and the BPNA 2021 Mac Keith Prize. He is one of the Leads of the London Stem Cell Network.
Moustafa KHEDR
PhD Student
Moustafa graduated from UCL with an MRes degree in Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, during which, he worked at Prof. Paolo De Coppi’s lab at the Great Ormond street Institute of Child Health on developing an ExtraCellular Matrix Derived Hydrogel derived from porcine intestines as a support for 3D organoid cultures. Prior to this, he was a research and teaching assistant at the American University in Cairo where he also obtained his BSc-Hons in Molecular and Cell Biology. He is currently working on modelling Duchenne muscular dystrophy using iPSC-derived 3D organoids with an MDUK-funded PhD studentship (second supervisor: Prof. Francesco Muntoni). Outside the lab, Moustafa is the Vice President of Apollo London Society and a Vice President at Innovation Forum.
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.
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.
SARA 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.
LOUISE 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.
GIULIA FERRARI
LUCA PINTON
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.
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.