ROLE

As Lead Senior Director - Scientific Officer, Belluscio collaborates in administering the HHMI Investigator Program and liaises with HHMI Investigators, their laboratories and the host institution. Belluscio’s host site assignments can be found here.

BIO

Leonardo (Leo) Belluscio joined HHMI in 2017, coming from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he served as a senior investigator and chief of the Developmental Neural Plasticity Section. Belluscio studies olfactory system plasticity and regeneration during the formation, refinement, and maintenance of its neural circuitry. His research combines molecular and functional techniques and seeks to develop methods for the preservation or repair of neural connections central to olfactory system function.

Belluscio earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Manhattan College and a PhD in neuroscience from Columbia University. He completed his postdoctoral research at Duke University before joining the NIH faculty as an investigator in 2002.