Rate My Professor Julia Cordero

Professor Julia Cordero is Professor of Systemic Signalling Biology in the Institute of Cancer Sciences, School of Cancer Sciences, at the University of Glasgow, and Honorary Group Leader at the CRUK Beatson Institute. Born and raised in Argentina, she obtained her Licenciada en Biología Molecular from Universidad Nacional de San Luis in 1999 and her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2007 in the laboratory of Ross Cagan, where she studied developmental tissue patterning in Drosophila. She conducted postdoctoral research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 2007 to 2008, followed by a Marie Curie and EMBO long-term fellowship in Owen Sansom’s group at the CRUK Beatson Institute in Glasgow from 2009 to 2014, investigating mechanisms of intestinal regeneration and cancer using Drosophila and mouse models. In late 2014, she established her independent research group at the University of Glasgow's Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre as a Junior Research Fellow, advancing to Senior Research Fellow in 2016. Her career has been supported by prestigious awards including the Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (2013-2018), Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, and Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award.

Julia Cordero’s research examines local and systemic functions of the adult intestine in health and disease, focusing on how intestinal stem cells adapt proliferation and differentiation to microenvironmental and organismal signals to maintain epithelial integrity, and how disruptions contribute to regeneration failure or tumorigenesis. Her laboratory employs Drosophila melanogaster as the primary model for its genetic tractability and multi-organ capabilities, supplemented by mouse studies, to uncover tissue-intrinsic mechanisms of stem cell regulation, systemic controls on proliferation, and intestine-wide effects like gut-brain axis alterations. Notable publications include “RAL GTPases drive intestinal stem cell function and regeneration through internalization of WNT signalosomes” (Cell Stem Cell, 2019), “Dynamic adult tracheal plasticity drives stem cell adaptation to changes in intestinal homeostasis in Drosophila” (Nature Cell Biology, 2021), “Neuroendocrine control of intestinal regeneration through the vascular niche in Drosophila” (Developmental Cell, 2025), and “The antimicrobial peptide Defensin cooperates with tumour necrosis factor to drive tumour cell death in Drosophila” (eLife, 2019). With over 3,600 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions advance understanding of intestinal homeostasis, cancer initiation, and organismal responses to gut dysfunction. Current grants fund projects on gut-driven sleep control and Drosophila models of cancer behaviors.