Dr. Laura Spagnolo

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Biography

Laura obtained an MSc in Pharmacy from the University of Trieste, Italy. She performed her doctoral studies at the University of Padova, Italy, and at EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, under the supervision of Angelo Fontana and Luis Serrano. Laura completed a short postdoctoral stint at ELETTRA, an Italian synchrotron, and further postdoctoral work at the Institute of Cancer Research with Laurence Pearl, where she contributed fundamental information on the structural organization of macromolecular plasticity in DNA-PK synapses and Non-Homologous End-Joining complexes. Laura established her research group at the University of Edinburgh, where the Spagnolo group continued work on DNA damage repair with a focus on extremophiles and initiated new projects involving gene editing machines, specifically Type III CRISPR complexes. In 2023, Laura joined the Research Complex at Harwell as a Group Leader. Her research interests revolve around the mechanisms of genome editing and engineering, specifically in studying macromolecular complexes involved in DNA editing and RNA metabolism using an integrated structural biology approach.

Research Interests

Experience

Group Leader

— Present

Research Complex at Harwell • Harwell

Leads the research group focused on DNA editing and RNA metabolism.

Professor

— Present

University of Glasgow • Glasgow

Conducts research in biophysical chemistry and leads a lab.

Research Group Leader

— Present

University of Edinburgh • Edinburgh

Established and led research on DNA damage repair and gene editing.