Dr. Margherita Yayoi Turco is a Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. Her lab’s research focus is to understand how the human placenta develops and how this is influenced by the maternal uterine environment. Her interest in cell fate decisions and embryonic development began during her studies in biotechnology at the University of Bologna in Italy where she investigated the role of endogenous cannabinoid signalling in pre-implantation embryos.

During her PhD in molecular medicine at the University of Milano and the European Institute of Oncology in Italy, she continued to explore the role of adaptor molecules in development and cancer using several stem cell models. Margherita then joined the Centre for Trophoblast Research at the University of Cambridge in the UK as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Professor Graham Burton, Dr. Myriam Hemberger, and Professor Ashley Moffett to establish tissue-derived organoid systems of human trophoblast (placenta) and endometrium (uterus). 

She was awarded the Intra-European Marie-Curie and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships and the L’Oreal Women in Science Award during her time in Cambridge followed by the prestigious ERC Starting Grant to start her lab. Her team is now using trophoblast and endometrial culture systems combined with imaging, gene editing, single-cell technologies and bioengineering approaches to address the key questions on the maternal-fetal interactions critical for a successful pregnancy.

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