The PI, Roberto Feuda, PhD,  Associate Professor

I am an evolutionary and developmental biologist interested in how gene regulatory programs generate and diversify neuronal cell types across animal evolution.

I earned my PhD in Biology and Bioinformatics from the University of Ireland, Maynooth, in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Davide Pisani. My doctoral work focused on the evolutionary origins of opsins and the relationships among non-bilaterian animal lineages.

I then carried out postdoctoral research in Prof. Peter Holland’s laboratory at the University of Oxford, where I investigated opsin evolution in insects. I subsequently moved to the California Institute of Technology to join Prof. Eric Davidson’s laboratory, where I shifted my focus toward developmental biology and the evolution of gene regulatory networks.

In 2018, I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, which enabled me to establish my independent research group in Europe. My research integrates evolutionary genomics, developmental biology, and single-cell approaches to understand the origins and diversification of neuronal cell types.

In October 2025, I moved to Italy to take up a position as Associate Professor in Comparative Anatomy and Developmental Biology at the University of Bologna, traditionally regarded as the oldest university in the world.

A recording of my Caltech postdoctoral symposium talk (scheduled immediately after presentations by Walter Gehring and Eric Davidson) is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdZJTmHO4is&t=4268s
(As you might imagine, I was completely calm and not at all sweating through my shirt.)