Leo is an RNA biologist investigating the regulatory principles that govern cell fate and identity during human cardiac development, homeostasis, and the pathomechanisms of cardiac diseases. He studied Chemistry and Biotechnology in India before joining an International Graduate program at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, for his Ph.D. After graduating in 2009, he joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, California, USA, for his post-doctoral studies with Prof. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte and subsequently at the University of California San Diego with Prof. Gene Yeo. After securing the internationally competitive NRW Stem Cell Network funding to establish his laboratory at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University of Cologne in 2014 he worked as group leader till 2023. In 2021 he received the ERC Consolidator grant and was subsequently recruited by the Vascular Research Center at the Faculty of Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt as a W2 Professor.

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