About
Luca Braga since February 2021 has been the Group Leader of the Functional Cell Biology team and Head of the High Throughput Screening (HTS) facility at the ICGEB, Trieste, Italy.
Dr Braga received his Bachelor in Medical Biotechnologies at the University of Milan, Italy, in 2010, followed by a master in Functional Genomics at the University of Trieste, Italy, two years later.
In 2017, Dr Braga obtained his PhD in molecular biology (Open University UK, ICGEB Trieste, Italy), with a thesis focused on the use of High Throughput Screening (HTS) for the identification of new microRNAs for the treatment of cardiac hypertrophy. Immediately after his PhD he remained in ICGEB with the role of scientific supervisor of the High Throughput Screening (HTS) Facility where he successfully developed HTS assays using a great variety of cellular models and supervised multiple international scientific collaborations across the ICGEB network. His contribution in this fields led to the publication of several original articles and reviews on high impact factor journals, including Nature, Nature communication, and Cell Reports.
In 2019, Dr Braga moved to King’s College London (UK) where, besides his research activity in molecular cardiology, he curated the design and the establishment of a new HTS facility at the School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences. During this period he developed innovative virus-free HTS assays for drug repurposing in the treatment of COVID-19 (Braga et al, Nature, 2021).
In 2021, Dr. Braga returned to ICGEB as the principal investigator of the Functional Biology Group. He redirected his research focus towards respiratory diseases and lung biology, with a specific emphasis on understanding and regulating regenerative processes involved in alveolar repair after lung injury.
