Diego di Bernardo

Biography Research Interests Core Facility Research Group Publications

Principal Investigator
Genomic Medicine Program Coordinator
Head of Bioinformatics Core

Other positions
Full Professor of Biomedical Engineerig, Dept. of Chemica, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II

Diego di Bernardo received his "Laurea cum laude" in Electronic Engineering in 1997 from the University of Naples "Federico II". In 2001, thanks to a 3-year European Commission “Marie Curie” Fellowship, he was awarded a PhD in Medical Physics from the University of Newcastle School of Medicine, UK (lab of Prof. Alan Murray). He was a postdoctoral researcher first at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Center in Cambridge (UK) with Dr. Tim Hubbard and then in the laboratory of Prof. Jim Collins at Boston University, USA. In 2003, he became a Principal Investigator at TIGEM, where he also acts as Coordinator of the Genomic Medicine Program and Supervisor of the Bioinformatics Core. In 2007, he became Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Naples "Federico II", in 2015 Associate Professor and then Full Professor in 2022. His research interests are strongly cross-disciplinary, blending Biomedical and Control Engineering with Molecular Biology to elucidate disease gene function and to develop novel technologies to advance therapies in rare genetic disorders. His research has been funded by Telethon, AIRC, Italian Ministries of Research and Health, HFSP, the European Union and the ERC Advanced grant.

Our lab combines Biology, Biomedical and Automation Engineering, and Computer Science with state-of-the-art approaches to develop innovative technologies to observe, model and program cell behaviour to advance basic and translational research in rare genetic disorders. Two main research efforts are undergoing in our lab: (1) one research line aims at developing and applying experimental protocols and computational approaches to measure transcriptional responses of cells to perturbations to elucidate mechanisms of genetic diseases and for drug repurposing; (2) the second research line aims at translating principles of control engineering in synthetic biology to engineer biomoleculer circuits t solve current challenges in gene and cell therapy of rare genetic disorders. Our lab is now also funded by a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant of €2.5 million over five years for the project DIMERCIRCUITS. The goal: to design synthetic genetic circuits that can dynamically, precisely, and reversibly control gene expression, enabling safer and more personalized gene therapies.

Facility Staff

[email protected]

Investigation of dynamic regulation of TFEB nuclear shuttling by microfluidics and quantitative modelling. Commun Biol. 2025
Engineering a synthetic gene circuit for high-performance inducible expression in mammalian systems.Nature Commun. 2024
A Biomolecular Circuit for Automatic Gene Regulation in Mammalian Cells with CRISPR Technology.  ACS Synth Biol. 2024
Computational drug prediction in hepatoblastoma by integrating pan-cancer transcriptomics with pharmacological response. Hepatology, 2023
A single-cell analysis of breast cancer cell lines to study tumour heterogeneity and drug response. Nature Communication, 2022

Quote

I am a Biomedical Engineer by training and I believe that cross-disciplinary research blending Engineering with Molecular and Cell Biology will greatly advance our understanding of rare and complex diseases and how to treat them.

Additional Funding

EC- Re-MEND - Building REsilience against MEntal illness during ENDocrine-sensitive life stages (2023-2027)
AIRC- Molecular phenotyping of breast cancer at the single-cell level to predict drug therapy for personalised medicine (2023-2024)
AIRC- Explore therapeutic resistance of triple negative breast cancer with single-cell transcriptomics and lineage tracing (2023-2024)
iPC – Individualised Pediatric Cure (2019-2023), European Commission H2020. Role: Beneficiary