Prof. Ruben Cauchi is a Professor of Neurogenetics in the Department of Physiology & Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery and Principal Investigator (PI) at the Centre for Molecular Medicine & Biobanking. He obtained his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford (UK), studying genetic animal models of motor neuron disease, and conducted postdoctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge (UK), focusing on RNA processing.
Prof. Cauchi leads the ALS/MND Lab and Malta’s National ALS/MND Registry & BioBank, working to unravel the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and advance innovative therapeutic strategies. His lab combines pre-clinical and clinical approaches and has contributed to multiple high-impact publications, establishing him as a leading authority in motor neuron diseases.
He serves on the editorial boards of Nature Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, PLoS ONE, BMC Neuroscience, and PeerJ, and acts as an ad hoc reviewer for top-tier journals. Prof. Cauchi is also an external scientific advisor to prominent funding bodies including the European Research Council (ERC), UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), as well as AFM-Téléthon (France), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), la Caixa Foundation (Spain), and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Europe.
He served as editor of a book on pre-clinical approaches to motor neuron disease research, featuring contributions penned by established leaders in the field, and represented Malta in EU COST Actions on antisense-mediated therapies for neuromuscular diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the Xjenza Malta-funded Project ACE, developing an innovative therapeutic approach against SARS-CoV-2.
Prof. Cauchi has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Royal College of Pathologists, reflecting his longstanding contributions to neurogenetics and biomedical research.
