Behind the Breakthroughs | Dr Luca Urbani

Dr Luca Urbani, PhD

Principal Investigator, Liver Regeneration and Tissue Engineering Group

I wasn’t really a great student at school,” laughs Dr Luca Urbani. “I didn’t enjoy it that much, but for some reason I was always fascinated by science, medicine and the idea of investigating things in a lab.

That spark of curiosity grew while Luca was growing up in Verona, in the Italian countryside, where food, family and health were always part of daily life. It was the kind of environment that quietly fed his interest in how our bodies work and what keeps us well.

So when Luca turned 18, heading to the University of Padua to study pharmaceutical chemistry felt like a natural next step – and it began a journey that would eventually make him one of liver science’s brightest talents.

Padua, Venice – and a life opened up by science

Padua fit Luca perfectly. He loved the course, the friendships, and especially his first taste of real research: “I really, really enjoyed it – the freedom you have at university to take projects wherever you want them to go.

“Padua’s a beautiful city too. You can walk, take a bus or cycle everywhere, and Venice is only 25 minutes away. As students, we’d have a great time catching the train after lessons, going there to drink a few spritz, then coming back on the midnight train.”

Luca stayed in Padua for his PhD, initially focusing on testing anti-cancer drugs. Tissue engineering wasn’t the original plan, but Luca was exposed to the field through other projects his group were doing.

“I got involved with a side project helping another postdoc,” he remembers. “It didn’t end up in my thesis, but it led me to joining another research group working full time on tissue engineering. It turned out to be the start of a career, and it happened purely by chance.”

The year in London that never ended

After he finished his PhD, an opportunity came up for Luca to continue his research at University College London (UCL). He’d already spent plenty of time in the city, and knew time abroad would help his career.

The UK research environment really impressed Luca, who found there was better funding, better technology and better collaboration. He completed the year at UCL, then moved onto King’s College London (KCL) in 2017, where he now leads a group in tissue engineering and disease modelling, funded by The Foundation for Liver Research.

Why the liver?

Luca didn’t originally set out to be a liver scientist – in his early career he focused on skeletal muscle regeneration, the trachea, and even the production of blood cells. But as soon as he began working with the organ more at UCL, he was hooked.

“The really fascinating thing about the liver is the way it can regenerate itself. It has a huge job to do – filtering our blood, and almost everything that passes through us. It’s an enormously complex organ, highly vulnerable and absolutely compelling.”

Tissue engineering in layman’s terms

Today, Luca’s work sits at the crossroads of tissue engineering and immunology. In his lab, tissue engineering doesn’t always mean growing full-size livers, but building mini versions of them, with disease models made from cells and biomaterials. 

“If I take cancer cells from a biopsy and grow them in 3D,” he explains, “I can create a mini tumour to study how it grows and how it can be treated. It’s the same with the liver. The models aren’t perfect replicas, but they’re powerful tools to answer very specific questions.”

Where Luca’s science is heading today

Currently, Luca is using biomaterials to recreate cancer and fibrosis ‘mini models’ in the lab. By seeing how immune cells interact with these models, he’s uncovering why some patients respond to treatment while others don’t – and helping to pave the way for more effective therapies.

Two of the most promising projects Luca is working on are already pointing towards real benefits for patients. The first, led by Dr Sara Campinoti, looks at how stem cells in the developing liver gain their remarkable potential. Unlocking this process could mean improved outcomes for conditions like leukaemia, where patients urgently need better treatment options like stem cell therapy.

The second project focuses on how to make immunotherapy work for more cancer patients. Unfortunately, tumours build a dense protein scaffold around themselves, which can block drugs and weaken immune cells. But by recreating these tumour environments in the lab, Luca is revealing how this hidden scaffold structure influences treatment success. In time, it could help doctors match patients to the therapies most likely to work for them – saving vital time when patients are seriously ill and there may only be a short window of opportunity.

Putting people first, and life beyond the lab

Ask Luca about his proudest moments and he doesn’t cite a paper or prize. “I always look for the next target,” he says. “Something I’m really proud of is the success of my group members – when I see my students succeed, when my postdoc won an award, when I see my group working together in a positive way – these are the things I enjoy the most. Sometimes we need to stop and recognise what we have done. Academia isn't always a place where you hear people saying 'well done' – and we should be saying it much more often.”

He’s quick to name the people who opened doors: his Master’s and PhD supervisor in Padua – “very direct and honest, but fair”; the PI who pushed him to move to London; and Professors Roger Williams and Shilpa Chokshi, “who gave me the opportunity to start my group”.

Outside the lab, Luca’s life is all about family, friends and adventure. “My husband and I love to travel, catch live music, and see as much theatre and comedy as we can. We’re always planning a new holiday!” He also volunteers with a number of charities, often cooking and providing food for different community groups – something he finds hugely rewarding.

And if Luca has one message for supporters? “Without the support of the Foundation, I wouldn’t have my group – what the Foundation does in terms of supporting research is unique and extremely important. It’s vital we talk about the liver more – and focus more funding on liver disease.”

A breakthrough study co-led by Luca has just shed light on a possible treatment for alcohol-related liver disease – click here to read the full story.

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