Dr. Diego Di Bernardo - Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM)
Engineering synthetic gene circuits to advance gene therapy of rare genetic disorders.
Abstract: Synthetic biology is a discipline that integrates approaches from engineering, physics, and computer science with molecular biology, with the aim of building gene circuits to program cellular behaviour for biotechnological and biomedical applications. In this seminar, I will illustrate how we are developing this technology, thanks to the convergence of advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis techniques, new artificial intelligence approaches, and classical methods of dynamical systems modelling can be used to design and build true biological circuits, using DNA as programmable code. In particular, I will show how these approaches can help overcome some of the current limitations of gene therapy and open new perspectives for applications in human health.
Bio: 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 in 2026 he became Deputy Director. Since 2022, he is Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Naples “Federico II”. He was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2025 to carry out a research program in synthetic biology applied to gene therapy. 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 and the European Union.
