Matteo Allegretti studied biological sciences at the University of Roma Tre where he obtained his Master in biochemistry of macromolecules with a thesis on lipid vesicles as cellular models in an origin-of-life scenario (Luisi group). Due to his passion for membrane systems, borders between an internal and an external environment, he moved to the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics as PhD student to investigate the structure/function of membrane proteins using cryogenic electron microscopy, in particular of mitochondrial ATP-synthases (Kühlbrandt group).
As postdoc he decided to join the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Beck group) to investigate the architecture of membrane proteins directly in their cellular context and upon environmental stresses. His focus has been in particular on the nuclear pore complex and on nuclear envelope remodeling, hallmarks of all eukaryotic cells. In the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge) Matteo’s group will continue investigating the macromolecular basis of compartment remodeling, developing and using different imaging technologies to describe cellular mechanisms at different scales and resolutions.