Dr Francesco Saverio Tedesco

Dr Tedesco is a clinician-scientist with expertise in neuromuscular diseases and muscle regeneration. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery with honours at the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). Before his doctorate he was a visiting scientist at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) studying muscle stem cell biology. He obtained his PhD investigating novel gene and cell therapies for muscular dystrophy at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute of Milan (Italy). He established his research group at UCL in 2014 and in 2015 he received the Young Investigator Award by the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. He was then awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship, followed by a Clinical Lectureship and a prestigious €1.5 million European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. In 2020 he received the RCPCH Simon Newell Investigator of the Year award, a 6-year attachment at the Francis Crick Institute and was promoted Professor at UCL. <br>The Tedesco laboratory (www.tedescolab.org) studies skeletal muscle regeneration, focusing on the development of novel therapies for incurable neuromuscular disorders of childhood. They work pioneered the use of human artificial chromosomes and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for gene and cell therapies of muscle diseases. Recently they developed the first human 3D artificial skeletal muscle entirely derived from iPS cells of children with neuromuscular diseases. Current projects investigate the use of small molecules to improve muscle cell delivery and iPS cell-derived myogenesis for complex neuromuscular modelling. The overall goal of the Tedesco laboratory is the translation of the aforementioned regenerative strategies into novel therapies to improve outcomes for children with neuromuscular disorders. <br><br>“Dave Guttridge | The Francis Crick Institute”