Luciano Di Croce

Luciano Di Croce

Centre de Regulació Genòmica

Life & Medical Sciences

1996 PhD Dept. Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Rome, Italy. 1996-2000 Postdoctoral work at the University of Marburg, Germany. 2000-2002 Senior Investigator at the European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. 2003 Group Leader at the Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG), Barcelona, Spain. Research Professor, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA). 2013 Elected EMBO Member. Luciano Di Croce is the coordinator of a new Marie Curie ITN project entitled “Chromatin architecture and Design – ChromDesign” (GA 813327) granted by the European Commission’s H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018 program.

Research interests

Epigenetic changes, such as histone modifications and DNA methylation, are common alterations in cancer cells. Our laboratory is addressing the molecular basis of epigenetic alterations during the early phase of the tumorigenesis process. The expression of onco-proteins in hematopoietic precursor cells provides a unique model system to follow the molecular step from a normal to a transformed cell on the level of gene transcription, nuclear structure and chromatin. More recently, Di Croce lab is interested in understanding how variations in the assembly of the Polycomb complexes occur and influence mES cell differentiation and animal development, and th erole of 'oncohistone' in pediatric cancers.

Selected publications

- Figuerola-Bou E, Ríos-Astorch C, Blanco E, Sánchez-Jiménez M, Táboas P, Fernández G, Gómez-González S, Muñoz O, Castellano-Escuder P, Perez-Jaume S, Garcia M, Prada E, Mateo-Lozano S, Riggi N, Avgustinova A, Lavarino C, Di Croce L, Sánchez-Molina S, Mora J 2025, 'KDM6 Demethylases Contribute to EWSR1::FLI1-Driven Oncogenic Reprogramming in Ewing Sarcoma', Cancer Res, 85 - 22 - 4485-4503. 
- Mocavini I, Mallol A, Gutierrez A, Chammas P, Carretero A, Dias A, Blanco E, Arce IR, Mallo M, Di Croce L & Payer B 2025,The PRC2-associated factor EPOP is required for Hox gene regulation during axial development in miceDevelopmental biology, 527 - 250 - 259.
- Palma, LG et al. 2025, 'Chromatin activity of IκBα mediates the exit from naive pluripotency', Elife, 14, RP102784.
- González-Almela E, Castells-Garcia A, Le Dily F, Merino MF, Carnevali D, Cusco P, Di Croce L & Cosma MP 2025, 'Herpes simplex virus type 1 reshapes host chromatin architecture via transcription machinery hijacking', Nature communications, 16 - 1 - 5313.
- Sebastian-Perez R, Nakagawa S, Tu XC, Aranda S, Pesaresi M, Gomez-Garcia PA, Alcoverro-Bertran M, Gomez-Vazquez JL, Carnevali D, Borràs E, Sabidó E, Martin L, Nissim-Rafinia M, Meshorer E, Neguembor MV, Di Croce L & Cosma MP 2025, 'SMARCAD1 and TOPBP1 contribute to heterochromatin maintenance at the transition from the 2C-like to the pluripotent state', Elife, 12 - RP87742.
- Condemi L, Mocavini I, Aranda S et al. 2025, 'Polycomb function in early mouse development', Cell Death Differ 32, 90–99.

Selected research activities

Co-organized the CRG Symposium on ‘Mechanisms of gene expression: unlocking therapeutic potential’, Barcelona, Spain
Prize for 2024 AECC EU Translational Grant
Editorial Board of Cell Death & Differentiation (since 2024)
Chair of the Italian National Committee for the Evaluation of Research (CNVR)
Coordinator of the ‘Genome Biology’ Programme (since 2020)
EMBO Member (since 2013)