We are delighted to announce that our 2026 Postdoctoral Researcher Medal Winner is awarded to…

Giulia Paci

Giulia is a Research Fellow in Yanlan Mao’s group at the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London (UK). She studied physics at the University of Bologna (Italy) before completing her PhD at EMBL Heidelberg (Germany) with Edward Lemke. During her doctoral research, she uncovered how transport of large cargoes through the nuclear pore complex is regulated in mammalian cells (Paci et al., eLife 2020), combining protein engineering with quantitative microscopy.

For her postdoctoral work, Giulia joined the Mao group to investigate organism resilience to external perturbations during development and homeostasis, with a focus on mechanical stresses. Her research, funded by an EMBO fellowship, integrates high-resolution imaging with the development of novel mechanical perturbation tools in Drosophila.

 

Giulia’s recent work revealed that epithelial cells can tune the range of their signaling by modulating 3D contact interfaces—a discovery that reshapes our understanding of intercellular communication. She also led the development of an imaging pipeline to reconstruct individual 3D cell shapes and contacts in thick tissues, enabling quantitative analysis of tissue architecture at cellular resolution. In parallel, she is pioneering PDMS-based microfluidic tools to apply mechanical stress to Drosophila larvae in vivo and study its long-term developmental consequences.

Beyond her research, Giulia has a long-standing passion for microscopy and bioimage analysis and has led on numerous community, outreach and pedagogical initiatives in this area. She is a co‑founder of the UCL BioImage Interest Group (BIIG), established in 2020 to connect users and experts across disciplines interested in biological and biomedical imaging. Since 2024, Giulia also serves on the organising committee of the Crick BioImage Analysis Symposium and has co‑organised the associated CBIAS napari workshop.

In 2025 Giulia was selected as part of the third cohort of fellows in Development’s Pathway to Independence programme, which aims to support the transition to a group leader role.

The BSCB Postdoctoral Researcher  Medal was established in 2020 to recognise early career researchers who have made a major contribution to Cell Biology in the UK or Ireland during their postdoctoral training.

Giulia will be awarded the Medal and give a talk about her research during the BSCB Spring Meeting, Dynamic Cell VI in Reading, UK, on 21-24 April 2026.