Matteo joined the Babraham Institute in 2021 to study molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human early embryo development. He is currently funded by the Wellcome Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI).

Since the beginning of his studies, he focused on investigating early stages of mammalian embryo development and the resulting defects when this process fails. For his doctoral training, he joined the lab of Prof Andrew J. Copp at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL, London) to study morphogenetic processes leading to neural tube formation. Here he described a new model of epithelial bending for the closure of the neural tube, established a mouse model of spina bifida and discovered that integrin-mediated adhesions regulate epithelial zippering. He then joined the group of Prof Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz to investigate early development of the human embryo and characterised the function of the anterior hypoblast signalling centre and a new role of integrin signalling during human post-implantation morphogenesis.