Valentina Greco


Valentina Greco is an Italian-born biologist who teaches at the Yale School of Medicine as the Carolyn Walch Slayman Professor of Genetics. Her research focuses on the role of skin stem cells in tissue regeneration.

Education

Greco received her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Palermo, Italy and received her PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany working with Suzanne Eaton on tissue growth mechanisms. She did her postdoctoral studies at Rockefeller University with Elaine Fuchs studying the mechanisms for stem cell activation during hair regeneration.

Research

Greco's lab studies tissue maintenance and regeneration focusing on the stem cells in the skin hair follicle. Her lab uses techniques such as in vivo imaging to track individual stem cells over time and understand how these cells act during homeostasis and respond to tissue injury. Her lab has worked extensively on the importance of the spatial organization of stem cell niches and shown that these stem cells coordinate their differentiation and migration and can clear away dead cells and tumor-like growths.

Awards and Honors

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