Léo Pio-Lopez is a computational biologist and affiliate Senior Scientist at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. He earned a dual Ph.D. in Electronics and Systems from Blaise-Pascal University in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and in Psychology and Cognitive Science from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, focusing on brain-inspired predictive control in artificial and biological systems. He then pursued a postdoctoral position on the development of new machine learning methods for network medicine and drug discovery at the Institute of Mathematics in Marseille, France. In 2021, he joined the Levin Lab, where his research came to focus on three primary areas of life and cognition.
* The evolution and basal cognition of morphogenetic systems: He investigates the computational properties that govern the scaling of cognition through homeostasis and bioelectricity. He uses machine learning, neural networks, and evolutionary algorithms to elucidate the principles of collective and multiscale computation that lead to higher cognition.
* The bioinformatics of xenobots, regeneration, cancer, and aging: He collaborates closely with biologists, using machine learning and data science to understand the genetic and bioelectrical dynamics underlying these biological processes.
* The development of new AI methods for biology and drug discovery, and the integration of biological principles into new AI architectures with implications for AI alignment.