Advisory Board
Giulio Cossu
Giulio Cossu is Professor Regenerative Medicine at the University of Manchester.
He was previously Professor of Human Stem Cell Biology at University College London, Director of the Division of Regenerative Medicine of San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Professor of Histology at the University of Milan.
He received his MD degree from the University of Rome and has been working subsequently at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Rome and the Institut Pasteur.
Giulio Cossu has been working for more than fourty years, on the embryology and pathology of skeletal muscle, has carried out the first clinical trial with stem cells for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and has published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
He is EMBO member, Senior Editor of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Fellow of the Medical Academy, Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, member of the Italian Council of health and of the advisory board of the National Research Council (CNR).
Benedetto Falsini
Benedetto Falsini holds a Medical Degree from Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome. Residency in Ophthalmology (same University) between 1979 and 1983.
Benedetto is currently Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome. For the same Institute he was Head of the Center for Retinal Degenerations (1998-2004) and since 2004 is Head of Neurophthalmology and visual electrophysiology Center. He is teaching Physiological Optics, Neurophthalmology and Retinal Degenerations in the Residency Program in Ophthalmology and in the School of Orthoptics, same University. Chair of Neurophthalmology and Pathophysiology of Vision in the Medical School.
Benedetto has been Visiting Research Scientist in 1993 at the Department of Ophthalmology, Washington University of St. Louis and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pennsylvania in 1996-1997. He has been collaborator of the Institute for Research in Ophthalmology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (1998-2002) and Adjunct Investigator, Translational Research Center of Macular Degeneration, National Eye Institute, Bethesda (2012-2013).
Fullbright Fellowship awarded in 1997. Italian Ministry of Science grants awarded in 1999; Telethon grants awarded in 1999 (co-investigator) and 2010 (principal investigator). Intramural grants Italian Ministry of Science awarded in 1996-2000. Fellow of the Italian Society of Ophthalmology and of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
Benedetto Falsini is author/co-author of more than 160 publications on peer-reviewed international journals and reported on PubMed (> 2000 citations in the literature, H-index: 30, ISI Web of Knowledge).
Roberto Gambari
Roberto Gambari is full Professor of Biochemistry at Ferrara University 2001. He holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University "La Sapienza" of Rome and carried out research at Columbia University - Cancer Research Center, New York, United States. From 1981 to 2001 he was Associate Professor in Applied Biochemistry - University of Ferrara.
Roberto has been chairman of PhD course in Biotechnology and Director of the Biotechnology Center of Ferrara University and is member of the Scientific Committee of the Interuniversity Consortium for Biotechnologies (C.I.B.). Roberto Gambari is recognized as one of the major experts in HbF induction in Thalassemia and he has been invited to join the sub-committee on Foetal Haemoglobin (coordinated by Jeff Miller and Yogen Saunthararajah) at the 2009 NIH-NIDDK workshop on “Thalassaemia: Clinical Priorities and Clinical Trials” , responsible of preparing the guidelines for the clinical trials focusing on HbF induction in Thalassemia.
He was the coordinator of the FP7 THALAMOSS Project (THALAssaemia Modular Stratification System for personalized therapy of beta thalassemia; grant no. 306201-FP7-Health-2012- INNOVATION-1) and leads University of Ferrara in an HORIZON-2020 project ULTRAPLACAD (ULTRAsensitive PLAsmonic devices for early CANCER DIAGNOSIS).
He is part of the supporter team of the EU Program Restore
Riccardo Palmisano
Riccardo is CEO at MolMed, Italian biotech company listed on teh Milan Stock Exchange and focused on research, development and clinical validation of innovative therapies for cancer treatment.
He joined MolMed from Genzyme, currently a Sanofy company, where he served in the last ten years as managing direcotr and general manager before, and as president of the board over the last two years.
Medical Doctor by education (Parma University), he has been working in the biopharmaceutical field for 30 years, having covered positions of increasing responsibility in Italian firms, like Farmitalia Carlo Erba and Menarini (where he was appointed Lusofarmaco’s General Manager in 1995) before, to move into Multinational firms later, where in 2000 he started from scratch the Italian operations for Shire Pharmaceutical, to be then appointed Vice President Commercial Retail Market in GlaxoSmithKline in Verona and, finally, Genzyme Vice President & General Manager Italy.
Along his career he launched a relevant number of products on the Italian market in different therapeutic areas, moving from retail to specilties niches, he participated to many International projects, he managed relevant re-organization projects, and he successfully negotiated pricing & reimbursement for some innovative drugs with the Italian Authorities.
In March 2016 Riccardo was elected President for Assobiotec, Italian Federchimica's biotech companies trade association.
Alessandro Sidoli
Alessandro Sidoli is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Axxam, a biotech company founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the Bayer Group.
He has been President of Assobiotec/Federchimica, the Italian association for the development of the biotech industry, since May 2010 until 2016, after having been Vice President since 2004.
He started his career in 1982 as a Research Scientist at the Biotechnology Department of Farmitalia Carlo Erba in Milan, and later he was also a researcher at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University (UK). From 1986 through 1989 he served as Head of the Biotechnology Department at the Istituto Sieroterapico Milanese (Milan).
During the ‘90s he founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Primm, one of the first Italian biotech companies, and was also Director of Technology Transfer at San Raffaele in Milan.
He is the author of more than 50 scientific publications and holds several national and international patents.
Alessandro received his degree in Biology from the University of Pavia where he conducted his studies as a member of the Ghislieri College.