Luca Fusar Bassini

Luca Fusar Bassini is a Doctoral Assistant and PhD candidate in the La Manno Lab at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, affiliated with the School of Life Sciences and the Institute of Bioengineering. He is pursuing his doctoral research in computational biology, focusing on omics and neurodevelopment. He also maintains active research collaboration with the Yu Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, working on antisense oligonucleotides for ultrarare diseases.

His academic journey includes a dual degree in Biology and Molecular Biotechnologies from the University of Pisa and advanced training at the Scuola Normale Superiore, where he gained a strong quantitative foundation. He completed his Master’s thesis in 2022 on the genomics of rare neurological disorders under the guidance of the Yu Lab.

Luca's research interests span computational genomics, neurodevelopment, mitochondrial biology, aging, and personalized therapeutics. He is particularly passionate about interventional genomics, N-of-1 trials, and the development of scalable diagnostics and therapeutics for rare diseases. His work integrates single-cell multiomics, statistical modeling, and bioinformatics pipeline development.

He is a dedicated science communicator, having founded TEDxLungarnoMediceo in Pisa and co-founded Progetto Bio[Tecno]Logico. He hosts the podcast The Biotech Futurist, launched in March 2023, where he explores future trends in biotechnology with expert guests.

• Ermenegildo Zegna Founder’s Scholarship
• Named among top 10 most promising Italian students under 25 in Healthcare & Biosciences by Nova (2022)
• Audience Choice Award at BraYn Conference for research on antisense oligonucleotides

Luca has advised and mentored in outreach initiatives and science education, including the Italian Biology Olympiad and university orientation projects. He has not received major research grants mentioned in the text but is involved in collaborative research efforts. He is part of the N=1 Collaborative, contributing to frameworks for personalized clinical trials. He also volunteered with the Community Outreach Program (CORP) in Mumbai, reflecting his commitment to global health equity.

He is actively involved in public engagement through talks (e.g., Festival della Scienza di Genova), scientific writing, and podcasting. His lab affiliations include the La Manno Lab (EPFL), Yu Lab (Boston), Cellerino Lab (Pisa), and Cremisi Lab (Pisa), where he has contributed to projects on aging, mitochondrial RNA import, and organoid modeling of neurodevelopmental disorders.