Group Leader
Guido Papa graduated in Medical Biotechnologies at the University of Siena and completed his PhD in Molecular Biology at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste. During his doctoral training, he developed pioneering reverse-genetics system and genome-editing approaches to study the molecular mechanisms that control the assembly of viral replication factories and demonstrating liquid-liquid phase separation as a fundamental principle of their organisation. After the PhD, he joined the Medical Research Council – Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB) in Cambridge (UK) as a postdoctoral scientist, where he investigated how viral structural components influence innate immune sensing. His work spanned multiple viral systems, including rotavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV, with a focus on the molecular logic of viral replication and host-pathogen interactions. At the MRC-LMB, he also pioneered innovative Targeted Protein Degradation technologies to selectively target and degrade intracellular protein assemblies, providing novel experimental platforms and opening new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of diseases driven by aberrant protein aggregation.
In September 2025, he returned to Italy to establish his independent group with support of the Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (FIS-2) Starting Grant. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Milan and, since October 2025, a Group Leader at the National Institute of Molecular Genetics (INGM) in Milan, where his laboratory integrates the study of biomolecular condensates with Targeted Protein Degradation to investigate and therapeutically target these structures, with the aim of uncovering fundamental principles of cellular and viral organisation and exploiting these mechanisms to develop innovative antiviral and disease-modifying strategies.
When Guido is not in the lab, you can find him playing football or at the stadium watching and cheering for his favourite football team! He also enjoys travelling and watching very nerdy TV series.