Giulia Quattrocolo, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, NTNU
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Trondheim
After obtaining a Bachelor in Biology and a Master in Neurobiology from the UniversitĂ di Pavia, in Italy,
in 2009, Giulia moved to Northwestern University, Chicago, for a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. There she worked in the lab of Dr. Gianmaria Maccaferri, studying the integration of Cajal-Retzius cells in the postnatal hippocampal circuit. In 2014 she joined the laboratory of Dr. Gord Fishell, then at NYU, to study the role of genetic and environmental factors in determining the differentiation of cortical and hippocampal interneurons. In 2017, Giulia moved back to Europe, in Norway, to work with Dr. Edvard Moser at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, at NTNU, in Trondheim, where I continued to investigate the role of Cajal-Retzius cells in the maturation of the hippocampal circuit. Since 2021 she is group leader of the Circuit Development lab at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, and in July 2023 she became an Associate Professor.
The main interest of the lab is to understand how different cell types come together during
development to support functional circuits. In particular, we focus on the circuits of the hippocampal formation, important for critical functions such as learning and memory.
Website: Quattrocolo’s Lab
X: @GQuattrocolo
Rui Benedito, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, CNIC
Madrid
Rui graduated in Microbiology and Genetics at the Faculty of Sciences (University of Lisbon) and then did his PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Lisbon) where he became interested in mouse genetics and developmental vascular biology. He then moved to the UK where he did a Postdoc at the London Research Institute (Cancer Research UK) and after in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine. His postdoctoral work focused on understanding the roles of the different Notch and VEGF signalling members in angiogenesis, for which he received the Peter Hans Hofschneider Prize 2009 for the outstanding achievement in the field of molecular medicine and the Werner Risau Prize 2013. His findings have implications for the design of therapies targeting angiogenesis.
After his postdoctoral studies, Rui joined CNIC as a group leader and received the Fundacion Principe de Girona Science Prize in 2014.
The laboratory’s main objective is to obtain a better understanding of how distinct signalling pathways control the different context-dependent behaviours of the diverse cell types that compose the vascular system and that are essential for new blood vessel formation, a process named as angiogenesis. This knowledge will be fundamental to better modulate angiogenesis in growing, damaged, ischemic or cancerous tissues.
Website: Benedito’s Lab
X: @Rui Benedito