Roberto Feuda

From October 2025, Roberto Feuda will be Associate Professor at the University of Bologna. His lab works at the interface between developmental biology, evolution, and systems biology. His research focuses particularly on the evolution of monoaminergic neurons, photoreceptors, and gene regulatory networks. The lab combines approaches from comparative genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, and developmental biology.

• 2009–2013: PhD in Biology, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland

  (Laboratory of Davide Pisani)

• 2007–2009: MSc in Evolutionary Biology, University of Rome Sapienza

• 2002–2006: BSc in Biology, University of Rome Sapienza

• 2025–present: Associate Professor, University of Bologna

• 2025–present: Visiting Scientist, Francis Crick Institute (Laboratory of James Briscoe, FRS)

• 2023–present: Royal Society University Research Fellow & Associate Professor, University of Leicester

• 2019–2023: Royal Society University Research Fellow (proleptic appointment), University of Leicester

• 2018–2019: Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Bristol (Laboratory of Phil Donoghue, FRS)

• 2013–2018: Postdoc, Laboratory of Eric Davidson, California Institute of Technology

• 2013: Postdoc, Laboratory of Peter Holland, FRS, University of Oxford

Since 2025, he has been teaching Cell Biology and Comparative Anatomy at the University of Bologna. He has previously taught and supervised MSc students, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral fellows at the University of Leicester, and has lectured widely at national and international institutions.

He has participated in and coordinated several national and international research projects funded by the Royal Society, Human Frontier Science Program, and Leverhulme Trust. His research spans the molecular evolution of vision, the origin of serotonergic neurons, and the genomic and neuronal diversity of early-branching animals. He has published extensively in international journals and currently serves on the editorial board of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

• Illuminating the Origin of Light Detection in Animals, Leverhulme Trust (2024–2028) – Co-Investigator

• Evolution of Protein Multifunctionality, Human Frontier Science Program (2023–2026) – Principal Investigator and Coordinator

• The Origin and Evolution of Serotonergic Neurons, The Royal Society (2023–2026) – Principal Investigator

• How Many Times Did the Nervous System Evolve?, The Royal Society (2018–2026) – Principal Investigator

• The Genomic and Neuronal Diversity in Ctenophores, The Royal Society (2021–2026) – Principal Investigator

• The Molecular Origin of Vision, The Royal Society (2019–2026) – Principal Investigator

• The Development of Neurons at Single-Cell Level, The Royal Society (2020–2022) – Principal Investigator

• The Evolution of the Neurogenic Toolkit, The Royal Society (2019–2022) – Principal Investigator

• The Patterning of Neurons in Sea Urchin Larvae, The Royal Society (2019–2020) – Principal Investigator

• Comparative Genomics and Early Animal Evolution, Irish Council for Science and Engineering (2009–2013) – Principal Investigator

• Alessandra Aleotti (2019–2024, Royal Society PhD) – Now Postdoc at the University of Southampton

• Maryam Ghaffari Saadat (2020–2021, Royal Society Postdoc) – Now Postdoc at the University of Manchester

• Julien Devilliers (2021–2024, University of Leicester PhD) – Now Postdoc at Virginia Tech

• Carlos Rivera Rivera (2020–2024, Marie Curie Fellow, with Davide Pisani) – Now Postdoc at the University of Manchester

• Dongfeng Wang (2024–present, Postdoc)

• Filippo Nicolini (2024–present, Postdoc)

• Matthew Goulty (2024–present, Postdoc)

• Clifton Lewis (2020–present, Postdoc)

• Frannie Stephens (2022–present, PhD)

• DaeNia La Rode (2021–present, PhD)

• Ruman Khalid (2025–present, PhD)

• Loise Whittle (2023)

• Harini Suresh (2023)

• Areej Alqahtani (2022)

• Paulina Rzasa (2021)

• Kayvan Karimi (2020)

• Fernando Torres (2019)

• 2023–present: Faculty, Gene Regulatory Networks Course, Woods Hole

• 2023: Co-organizer, Gene Regulatory Network in Development and Disease Conference, Oxford

• 2023: Co-organizer, Symposium on the Evolution of Sensory Systems, SMBE Ferrara

• 2020–present: Organizer, Neurogenetics Lab Meetings, University of Leicester

• 2021–present: Organizer, Internal Seminars, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester

• Member of thesis committees at Queen Mary University, University of Bergen, and SARS, Norway

• Organizer or committee member for EvolMar, British Echinoderm Meeting, and Systematics Association Conference

• 2018–present: Editorial Board Member, Proceedings of the Royal Society B

• Regular reviewer for journals including Nature Communications, PNAS, Development, MBE, GBE, PLOS Biology, BMC journals, and others

• 2025/02: Francis Crick Institute

• 2025/02: University College London

• 2024/09: Imperial College London

• 2024/01: University of Pavia

• 2023/11: University of Reno, Nevada

• 2023/04: University of Padova

• 2023/03: EPFL Lausanne

• 2022/07: Monod Conference on the Origin of Metazoa

• 2022/07: Euro Evo-Devo

• 2019/11: SARS Centre for Marine Molecular Biology

• 2019/04: Symposium on the Evolution and Identity of Cell Types, EMBL Heidelberg

• 2019/02: Crick Beddington Developmental Biology Symposium

• 2018/12: University of Nottingham

• 2018/10: XXV Developmental Biology of Sea Urchin

• 2018/10: University of Bristol

• 2018/09: Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter

• 2018/03: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

• 2017/04: XXIV Developmental Biology of Sea Urchin

• 2017/02: Mayo Clinic Scottsdale

• 2016/06: Caltech Biology Division Retreat

• 2016/02: Gene Regulatory Network Workshop, Caltech

• 2015/10: XXIII Developmental Biology of Sea Urchin

• 2012/06: SMBE Dublin

• 2012/05: EMBO Workshop, Venice

• 2011/06: Society for Evolutionary Studies, Oklahoma City

• The Economic Times: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/genes-related-to-learning-memory-aggression-date-back-to-more-than-650-million-years/articleshow/101841979.cms

• EurekAlert!: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/995657

• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/30/evolution-row-ends-as-scientists-declare-sponges-to-be-sister-of-all-animals

• The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/humble-sea-sponge-is-ancestor-of-all-humanity-ksw6gn37b

• Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/sponges-are-ancestors-all-animals-728657

• The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/humans-sponge-creatures-evolution-750-million-years-ago-ancestor-species-a8087056.html

• Corriere della Sera (Italian): http://www.corriere.it/opinioni/17_dicembre_04/spugne-biologia-sulle-nostre-origini-a201620a-d851-11e7-83d0-5335217d8231.shtml

• Scientific American: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtomics/animal-vision-evolved-700-million-years-ago/