Ivano Legnini

Ivano Legnini is a Research Group Leader at Human Technopole in Milan, Italy, where he leads the Legnini Group within the Genomics center. He established his independent laboratory at Human Technopole in March 2023 after completing an EMBO fellowship at the Max Delbrück Center – Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology.

Legnini earned his degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Sapienza University of Rome in 2012 and completed his PhD there in 2016, working on non-coding RNA and post-transcriptional regulation in Irene Bozzoni's laboratory.

His research focuses on gene regulation, particularly RNA metabolism and processing, using innovative approaches that combine optogenetics with spatial transcriptomics in organoid models. His group has developed technologies such as FLAM-seq for studying poly(A) tail regulation. Current research areas include understanding mRNA isoform selection, spatial regulation of gene expression in neurodevelopment, and viral encephalitis modeling.

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on developing and applying cutting-edge genomic technologies to understand RNA regulation in three-dimensional biological systems. His work spans from fundamental RNA biology to disease modeling, with particular emphasis on neurodevelopment and cancer.

• EMBO fellowship recipient

Legnini mentors several students and postdocs in his lab, including PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working on RNA dynamics and spatiotemporal gene regulation. His group actively develops genomic technologies for gene expression perturbation and profiling.

The Legnini Group combines molecular and systems biology approaches, using synthetic biology and optogenetics to engineer cells and organoids to reproduce complex regulatory cascades, then applying integrative transcriptomics techniques to understand gene regulation principles.