Scientific Committee

Humanitas University, Rozzano (Italy) • Since the beginning of her career, Simona Lodato has been fascinated by how the brain develops its extraordinary cellular diversity and functional circuits. After obtaining her master’s degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II, where she studied the specification of cortical GABAergic interneurons, Simona pursued her PhD in Molecular Medicine at the European School of Molecular Medicine, investigating the molecular development and laminar distribution of cortical interneurons under the supervision of Michèle Studer. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting PhD student at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she deepened her expertise in developmental neurobiology. She then completed her postdoctoral training in Paola Arlotta’s group at Harvard University in Cambridge, where she investigated how neuronal diversity in the cerebral cortex is generated and maintained, identifying gene regulatory networks driving projection neuron subtype identity. In 2018, Simona returned to Italy as Assistant Professor and Junior Group Leader at Humanitas University and Research Hospital, where she established her independent research program. Her lab combines human brain organoids, stem cell biology, and single-cell omics to unravel how genetic, activity-dependent, and environmental factors converge to shape cortical development and its dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders. She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2021 for her project IMPACT, investigating the molecular identity of pacemaker neurons during cortical development. Simona has served as a Next Generation Leader for the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle in 2016 and in 2018 was elected a member of the FENS Kavli Network of Excellence, recognizing her contributions to neuroscience research and leadership. Since May 2023, she is Associate Professor and Group Leader at Humanitas, and in 2024 she received the European Journal of Neuroscience Special Lecture Prize at the FENS Forum in Vienna.