Gabriel Galea

Dr. Gabriel Galea is a Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (University College London), where he leads the Neurulation Biomechanics Lab. His work focuses on neural tube defects like spina bifida, bridging genetic/molecular mechanisms with tissue-level consequences through animal models, patient-derived tissues, human induced pluripotent stem cells, and computational simulations.

• Current lab members include postdocs (Michael Boylan, Nargess Khalilgharibi) and PhD students (Mona Alnakhlawi, Yash Gupta, Andrea Krstevski, Paula Richter)
• Holds a Wellcome Stage II Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship (2018-2024)
• Co-Departmental Graduate Tutor for Research degrees since 2024, overseeing 200+ PhD students
• Recognised by the Higher Education Academy as a Fellow (2017)
• Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (2015-present)

Research Interests

• Mechanobiology of embryonic development
• Neural tube closure mechanics
• Translational approaches to congenital malformations
• Stem cell-based disease modeling

Publication Trends: 15 most recent works span developmental biology, biomechanics, stem cell research, and computational modeling, with a focus on neural tube defects, tissue morphogenesis, and translational applications.

Scientific Awards

• Wellcome Stage II Clinical Research Career Development Fellow
• HEA Fellow certification

Teaching & Mentorship: Lectures on cell biology and neural development in UCL MSc/BSc courses, and co-supervises doctoral training programs. His lab directly mentors 4 PhD students.