Giovanna Zinzalla

In January 2012, she took up the position at the Karolinska Institutet and started her own research group as an assistant professor in chemical biology and principal investigator at the MTC Department and within the Centre for Advanced Cancer Therapies (ACT). In summer 2024, she joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University. At the University of Cambridge, Dr Giovanna Zinzalla is a long-term visiting academic/PI in the Department of Pharmacology, where she carries out some of her research and lectures for the third-year/Part II Pharmacology course.

How the transcriptional machinery orchestrates gene expression programs during development, renewal and in response to environmental signals is one of the outstanding questions in biology. I tackle this fundamental problem by focusing on determining at the molecular level the mechanisms regulating the interactions between transcription factors and their interactions with co-factors, especially with epigenetic regulators. My research approaches encompass the use of chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology. The ultimate goal is to develop therapeutic agents to treat human diseases and new approaches for regenerative medicine.