Dr. Luca Fagnocchi has a B.S. in biological sciences, an M.S. in molecular and cellular biology, and a Ph.D. in cellular, molecular and industrial biology from the University of Bologna, Italy. He completed his graduate work in the Department of Microbial Molecular Biology at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy, focusing on gene regulation in the human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis, and contributing to the development of the Bexsero MenB vaccine. His postdoctoral work was first carried out at the Epigenetic Unit of INGM, Milan, Italy, and later continued at the Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics Lab at CIBIO, Trento, Italy. During his postdoc, he focused on the role of the MYC oncogene in stem and cancer stem cell identity and, more broadly, on epigenetic mechanisms involved in tumorigenesis. In 2019, he joined the Department of Epigenetics at Van Andel Institute, in the lab of Dr. Andrew Pospisilik. Since then, he focused on the epigenetic origins of developmental heterogeneity and complex diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

AWARDS

• MeNu Travel Scholarship — Keystone Symposia: Adipose tissue: energizing good fat (2023)
• VAI Department of Epigenetics Research Excellence Award (2022)
• Best Poster Award — 6th Max Planck Freiburg Epigenetics Meeting, Freiburg, Germany (2022)
• Best Poster Award 3rd place — VAI Scientific Retreat, Thompsonville, Michigan, USA (2022)
• EMBO short term fellowship grant — visiting Prof. Hendrik G. Stunneberg lab at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2015)
• BLUEPRINT lab exchange programme grant — visiting Prof. Hendrik G. Stunneberg lab at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2015)
• EPIGEN Travel grant — 11th EMBL “Transcription and Chromatin” Conference, Heidelberg, Germany (2014)
• Franco Tatò Award: best Italian Ph.D. thesis on General Microbiology, awarded by the Italian Society of General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, SIMGBM (2013)