Cristina Lo Celso

Cristina Lo Celso (born 1978) is an Italian cell biologist who is a professor at Imperial College London. Her research investigates the dynamic cellular processes that regulate hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow. She was awarded the Royal Microscopical Society Life Sciences Medal in 2019, and was the first woman to win the Academy of Medical Sciences Foulkes Foundation Medal in 2017.

Early life and education Lo Celso spent her childhood in Turin. Her grandfather was a surgeon, who performed operations in extreme conditions during World War II. She studied at the University of Turin. She moved to University College London for doctoral research, and worked alongside Fiona Watt on epidermal stem cells supported by Cancer Research UK. Lo Celso moved to Harvard University for postdoctoral research, where she started studying hematopoietic stem cells. She developed first-of-their-kind microscopy techniques that permitted her to image living blood cells in their natural environment.

Research and career In 2009, Lo Celso established her research group at Imperial College London. She is interested in how leukaemia cells move around the body and how cells that promote bone growth disappear as leukaemia develops. She uses ex-vivo microscopy analysis to understand how HSCs localise and interact.

In 2017 Lo Celso was the first woman to win the Foulkes Medal in 2009. 2019: Royal Microscopical Society Life Sciences Medal 2025: Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Selected publications