Affiliation: University College London,MRC LMCB

Luigi Aloia is a Junior Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LCMB) at University College London (UCL) and his main scientific interest lies in the regulation of the cell-fate changes required for embryonic development and adult tissue regeneration. Luigi completed his PhD in 2010 from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. His thesis work Professor Tommaso Russo’s laboratory, led to the identification of novel molecular mechanisms regulating pluripotency of embryonic stem cells and their commitment to the neural fate. For his postdoc, he joined the laboratory of Professor Luciano Di Croce at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona (Spain), where he discovered how the interplay between epigenetic mechanisms and signalling pathways determines the specification of neural progenitor identity from embryonic stem cells in vitro and in the embryo in vivo. In 2014 he joined the laboratory of Dr Meritxell Huch at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action fellow. His work led to the discovery of a fundamental epigenetic remodelling process, which drives adult liver regeneration after injury in vivo and establishment of liver organoid cultures. At the LMCB, Luigi is currently investigating the molecular mechanisms that govern adult liver regeneration and their implications in liver disease and cancer.