Marco Trizzino

Marco Trizzino is an Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London (Faculty of Natural Sciences). He previously held positions as Assistant Professor and Adjunct Professor at Thomas Jefferson University. His research focuses on developmental and evolutionary genomics, integrating experimental and computational approaches to study transposable elements' roles in human-specific traits, neurodevelopmental disorders, and lifespan evolution. Key projects include investigations into craniofacial development, neural crest cell specification, and the molecular basis of syndromes caused by chromatin-associated gene mutations.

Education: PhD from Sapienza University of Rome, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania and The Wistar Institute. He leads a lab relocating to Imperial College in 2022, supported by grants from MRC, NIH, BBSRC, and the Alzheimer's Association. Recent grants include studies on CHD3 in craniofacial development (collaboration with King's College) and transposable elements in ALS (with Thomas Jefferson University).

Research Interests: His lab uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from primates and patients to model neural crest and neural lineages. Key topics include transposable elements' contributions to gene regulatory networks, epigenetic dysregulation in syndromes, and mechanisms linking chromatin mutations to craniofacial/neural defects. He also explores lifespan differences among mammals, combining evolutionary genomics with molecular biology.

Lab Members: Current advisees include PhD students Zoe Mitchell and Martina Demurtas, and postdoc Laura Deelen. Sam Barnada recently completed her PhD. Collaborators include Prof. Karen Liu (King's College) and Prof. Davide Trotti (Thomas Jefferson University).

Grants & Awards: Recent funding includes a 5-year NIH-R01 grant (2024), MRC funding for CHD3 research (2025), and BBSRC support for transposable element studies (2023). The lab's work addresses translational applications in neurodegenerative diseases and developmental syndromes.