From Jurassic Park to assistant professor in the Department of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. The path of Leonardo Morsut he starts from afar, from a cinema in Padua, to arrive at the biology of genetic circuits. In the middle there is one career as a volleyball player with eight seasons and 195 matches in Serie A1 (in 2004 he was the best Italian Under 23), sixteen matches with the national team, gold at the 2001 Mediterranean Games and bronze at the 2005 Universiade. “When I was a kid, I used to make potions and concoctions with the leaves of the home garden. I was attracted to all sciences, but I didn’t have precise ideas, I lived in an almost magical dimension », recalls Morsut, 40. «Given my name, my myth could only be Leonardo da Vinci. Jurassic Park changed my life, the idea of reviving dinosaurs and the discovery of genetic engineering ».
The two and a half million dollar loan
Now Leo has got a financing of 2.56 million dollars by the NIH (the American correspondent of the Higher Institute of Health) to continue research on the genetic circuits that control the behavior of stem cells used in regenerative medicine and to develop protocols for making organs in vitro. “Stem cells have been used for ten years to assemble rudimentary organs in test tubes,” he explains. “There are various ways: one of them is to insert genetic circuits that program the cells to behave in the required way.” There syntethic biology it is one of the most advanced fronts in genetics and has shaken regenerative medicine from its foundations. ‘We try to combine our knowledge of synthetic biology to understand how multicellular systems form tissues and organs, for example the immune or lymphatic system, or muscle tissues. Although in the US the main task of a laboratory head is more than doing research in person lead the group and obtain funding, propose research topics to obtain authorization from the competent bodies “.
The shock of the cousin
From the dream of bringing dinosaurs back to life to a desk job looking for money to finance expensive studies, isn’t that an understatement? “Far from it,” Leo replies with conviction. “About ten people of various nationalities work with me, including an Italian in post-doc and another one should arrive soon. I would not change what I do for anything in the world. Genetic engineering in the early 1990s was almost science fiction, manipulating the genetic code was the biggest challenge. In 1995 my cousin died of cystic fibrosis. We had grown up together, at the time I didn’t realize it, but that was an important spring, a definitive push towards the biomedical field ».
Farewell to volleyball
Leo succeeded in the difficult task of combining a career in high-level volleyball with university studies. “I stopped playing when I was 26, it was not an easy choice. According to many, I was at the peak of my career, but I had graduated and had to start training in the laboratory ». In its last championship, played in the ranks of Trento, the team reached the semi-finals of the championship. «Volleyball was enjoyable and I was good, it made me travel the world and I took away some satisfactions. But at a certain point I realized that I couldn’t improve that much and it seemed to me that I was wasting time. Did I repent? You have these thoughts, it would have been fun to continue playing but I am very happy with where I am, with what I do and with the journey made with my family ». Leo he is married to Sabina, an art historian and expert in illuminated medieval books, they live in Pasadena with their two children. “Gabriele, 7, and Aurora, 3 and a half, were born here in America: one in San Francisco, where I arrived in 2012 for the last post-doc training phase, and the other in Los Angeles”.
The future
Is there a possibility of returning to Italy? “Not before the evaluation to get a teaching at USC in four years. Then who can tell? I hope to continue doing the things I am passionate about. There synthetic biology it is constantly evolving and what it was worth 5-10 years ago is now outdated ». In reality, Leo Morsut has never abandoned the sports halls, the jokes and the dunks of volleyball: he is always looking for new challenges. «My next goal is to be able to develop a group, an environment for doing research and answering questions that we still don’t even know what they might be. I’d like to take classes in high school, write textbooks or an informative one to bring synthetic biology to the general public. My dream? Having a dialogue based on science with the whole of society “.
April 23, 2021 (change April 23, 2021 | 22:22)
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