Biosketch
Francesco Saverio TEDESCO, MD PhD
Dr. Tedesco graduated in Medicine and Surgery with honours in 2006 at the University of Rome “La
Sapienza” (Italy). During and after medical school Dr. Tedesco was a visiting scientist at the Institut
Pasteur (Paris, France) in the laboratory of Professor Shahragim Tajbakhsh, where he studied asymmetric
cell division and stem cell self-renewal. He then continued his studies in the laboratory of Professor Giulio
Cossu at San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Milan, Italy), where he obtained PhD in 2010, studying novel
gene and cell therapy strategies for muscular dystrophy. During his PhD, he started a collaboration that
launched novel research lines in the aforementioned laboratory, resulting in a publication in a field not
previously explored by his supervisor: human artificial chromosomes (HACs; Tedesco FS et al., Sci Transl
Med 2011; commentary: Tremblay JP and Frederickson RM, Mol Ther 2011). After receiving PhD, he
coupled post-doctoral research in muscle regeneration with clinical practice and training between Italy
(San Raffaele Hospital, Milan) and UK (UCL and UCL Hospitals). Additionally, he started to work on
pluripotent stem cell-derived myogenesis (Tedesco FS et al., Sci Transl Med 2012; commentary: Vilquin JT,
Mol Ther 2012). Moreover, Dr. Tedesco also became a co-investigator in a first-in-human clinical trial
based upon transplantation of donor muscle stem cells for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (EudraCT no.
2001-000176-33).
Dr. Tedesco joined University College London Department of Cell and Developmental Biology in
January 2012 as a Senior Research Associate, funded by an MRC Translational Stem Cell Grant on which
he was Co-Investigator. In 2013 he was then appointed Principal Research Associate and established his
independent research group. The Tedesco lab is currently composed of one post-doctoral research
associate, three PhD students, one research assistant, two MRes students and one BSc student. The group
receives funding from Takeda New Frontier Science, the UK Medical Research Council, European Union 7th
Framework Programme, BBSRC, Duchenne Parent Project Onlus, the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, the
Duchenne Children’s Trust and the Duchenne Research Fund.
Dr Tedesco has been awarded several travel grants by the International Society for Stem Cell
Research (ISSCR) to present his data to the annual meetings in San Francisco, Tokyo and Boston. He was
also invited to present his research at over twenty international meetings and institutions, including the
7th Takeda Science Foundation Symposium and CiRA International Symposium on iPS cells in Drug
Discovery and Development, Osaka, Japan, January 2014 (invited by the Nobel Laureate Professor Shinya
Yamanaka and his organizing committee).
Dr. Tedesco’s research is focused on the study of muscle regeneration, using murine models of
muscular dystrophy and stem cell transplantation as a model system. With his team he is also developing
novel gene and cell therapy strategies for muscle disorders by means of human artificial chromosomes,
induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and biomaterials. They are interested in understanding how skeletal
muscle sustain long-term tissue regeneration and how we can improve this process for incurable diseases
such as muscular dystrophies. Their work was the first to show safe and efficacious pre-clinical gene
replacement therapy with a human artificial chromosome into an animal model of a genetic disease
(specifically, Duchenne muscular dystrophy; Tedesco FS et al., Sci Transl Med 2011). They were also
amongst the first to report on the therapeutic potential of disease-specific (i.e. limb-girdle muscular
dystrophy 2D) iPS cells that have been genetically corrected, transplanted back into an ad hoc generated
mouse model and shown to provide therapeutic potential (Tedesco FS et al., Sci Transl Med 2012).
Current research projects in Tedesco lab are investigating the extension of the HAC-based genetic
correction platform to human myogenic progenitors (muscle- and iPS cell-derived), the use of small
molecules to reprogram muscle stem cell properties for cell therapies and the use iPS cell-derived
myogenesis for disease modeling and tissue engineering. The overall goal of Dr. Tedesco and his team is
the clinical translation of these novel regenerative medicine strategies into future therapies for muscle
disorders.