Dr Marco Di Antonio

Marco's work has been particularly influential in establishing the biological relevance of non‑canonical nucleic acid structures, especially G‑quadruplexes – four-stranded configurations that form in guanine-rich regions of the genome. Marco’s groundbreaking work, which includes chemical modification of CRISPR-Cas9 systems, has been pivotal to unravel transcriptional responses associated with G-quadruplex targeting.¹

His group’s genome-mapping and functional analyses have additionally revealed that G‑quadruplexes and other higher-order nucleic acid structures can accumulate in neurodegenerative disease² and can drive epigenetic changes that are linked to drug resistance.³ This seminal work therefore identifies novel mechanisms underpinning cell biology and highlights the importance of nucleic acids secondary structures as therapeutic targets.

Beyond his research, Marco is a very engaged member of the wider chemical biology community and has made many active contributions to community‑building activities such as chemical biology-focused meetings and forums, including organising the first Anglo-Italian Nucleic Acids Symposium that will be held in October 2026.

He is additionally the chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Nucleic Acids interest group, has served on the Royal Society Research Grants Committee in Biological Sciences, and is an active member of International Chemical Biology Society. Collectively, these activities highlight his role not only as a world-leading researcher but also as a community builder and advocate for chemical biology across the UK and internationally.

Marco will present his award lecture at one of the CBBG-run symposia in 2027.

References:

1) Nuccio SP, Cadoni E, Nikoloudaki R, Galli S, Ler A-J, Sanchez-Cabanillas C, Vilar R, Maher TE, Fan E, Guneri D, Flint G, Zhu M, Liu LS, Fullenkamp CR, Waller Z, Magnani L, Scheenkloth J, Di Antonio M.* “Chemically modified CRISPR-Cas9 enables targeting of individual G-quadruplex and i-motif structures, revealing ligand-dependent transcriptional perturbation” Nat. Commun. 2026 17, 385.

2) Raguseo F, Wang Y, Li J, Petrić Howe M, Balendra R, Huyghebaert A, Vadukul DM, Tanase DA, Maher TE, Malouf L, Rubio-Sánchez R, Aprile FA, Elani Y, Patani R, Di Michele L, Di Antonio M.* “The ALS/FTD-related C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion forms RNA condensates through multimolecular G-quadruplexes” Nat. Commun. 2023 14(1), 8272.

3) Robinson J, Flint G, Garner I, Galli S, Maher TE, Kuimova MK, Vilar R, McNeish IA, Brown R, Keun H, Di Antonio M.* “G-quadruplex structures regulate long-range transcriptional reprogramming to promote drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells.” Genome Biol. 2025 26(1), 183