Luisa Cochella
Principal Investigator
mcochel1@jhmi.edu
410-614-0198
Molecular Biology and Genetics
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
725 N. Wolfe Street, PCTB 802A
Baltimore, MD 21205
Luisa (she/her) grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She obtained her Licenciatura (B.S.-Masters equivalent) in Biology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she conducted her thesis work in the lab of Dr. Rachel Green. For her postdoc, Luisa moved from using in vitro reconstituted translation systems to understand fundamental aspects of protein synthesis, to using the worm C. elegans as a genetic system to study fundamental aspects of cell differentiation and development. Luisa did her postdoc in the lab of Dr. Oliver Hobert at Columbia University in New York. Combining these two diverse trainings, Luisa started her independent group at the IMP in Vienna, Austria in 2013, with the goal to understand the basic gene regulatory mechanisms that drive the development of a multicellular organism. In 2021 the Cochella lab moved to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
Luisa loves talking about all things RNA, worms and any cool science topic. Outside of science, Luisa has picked up some of her favorite things from the different places where she’s lived: in Buenos Aires the love of family, tango, fútbol and a good asado; in New York, jazz, art and sushi; in Vienna, coffee, public transport and Schiele; and in Baltimore, seafood, walking by the water, hiking, and getting to do science in a friendly, collegial and stimulating environment!