Giuseppe Merla

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT GIUSEPPE MERLA

In 1996, I obtained my degree in Biological Sciences by performing research on Drosophila Melanogaster in the laboratory of Prof. Gioacchino Palumbo at the University of Bari. After a one-year stay in the Oncology Laboratory at IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo, I joined the TIGEM Institute, headed by Prof. Andrea Ballabio, in Milan and Naples where I stayed until 2001. Then I moved, as Research Assistant, to the Division of Medical Genetics, University of Geneva Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland, directed by Prof Stylianos E. Antonarakis, under the guide of Prof. Alexandre Reymond. In 2009 I specialized in Medical Genetics at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, with the direction of Prof. Bruno Dallapiccola. In 2014 I got the Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at the University of Trieste. I was trained as a geneticist and a molecular biologist in the laboratories of Alexandre Reymond, Andrea Ballabio and Stylianos Antonarakis, before leading own group in Human and Medical Genetics in San Giovanni Rotondo. Since its establishment in 2004, my group is devoted to biomedical research in the field of human genetic rare diseases and cancer, ranging from clinical to basic research and therapy. The main current research fields are Williams Beuren syndrome, Kabuki syndrome and other Chromatin-affected diseases, and IDDCA syndromes, as well as characterizing undiagnosed rare diseases using NGS and biochemical approaches. In the field of Cancer Genetics I am involved mainly in studies that aims with the aetiology of glioblastoma. Since 2009 I’m the Director of GGDB biobank, member of Telethon Network of Genetics Biobank. The GGDB stores and handles thousands of biospecimens including skin fibroblast and hiPSC, from patients - and healthy controls - affected by genetics rare human disease, with a focus on those diseases extremely rare as IDDCA. Since 2013, I imported in my lab the most recent technologies on cell reprogramming and differentiation as well as we improved our skills on omics technologies.