Find out more about our experienced team,
from leadership to the research team.
Prof. Angelo Luigi Vescovi
Chief Strategic Officer
Angelo L. Vescovi, born April 24th 1962 near Bergamo (Italy), M.Sc. in Biology at the University of Milan – Statale in 1987, after his post-doctoral fellowship at the Foothills Hospital Dept. of Pathology in Calgary Canada, becomes Head of the Neuropharmacology Unit at the Istituto Neurologico in Milan. Back to Calgary in 1999, he is designated Vice-director of Neurospheres ltd. Co-director of the Stem Cell Research Institute at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan from 2001 to 2006, he is currently Associate Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy, scientific director of the non-profit Neural Stem Cells Bank in Terni (Italy) and Head of the Nanomedicine&Tissue Engineering Unit at the Ca’ Granda – Niguarda Hospital in Milan.
His major research fields are the cancer stem cells and neural stem cell studies for the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases, ischemias and spinal cord injuries, with a focus on gliomas and glioblastomas, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. He has authored more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers (including Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, some of which averagely cited more than 200 times) and book chapters, with a total h-index of thirty-three.
Due to his expertise in the field and his attention to the bio-ethical aspects of the subject, he was called in as Emeritus Speaker at the National Academy of Science (Accademia dei Lincei) and at the World Economic Forum in 2000, consultant for the National Committee on Stem Cells of the Italian Ministry of Health and of the House of Lords British Committee on Stem Cells, unique expert for the European Commission and member at the Pontifical committee on stem cells of the Vatican State.
Since January 1st 2010 he has become Scientific Director of the Hospital Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo.
EDUCATION
- 1981: B.S Industrial Chemistry, Industrial & Technical State Institute, Milan
- 1987: Ph.D Molecular Pharmacology, State University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- 1993: Post-Doc, Cell Biology & Developmental Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- 1985-1986. Awarded with a fellowship by the National Neurological Institute “C.Besta”, Milan, Italy.
- 1988-1990. Awarded with a fellowship by the National Neurological Institute “C.Besta”,Milan, Italy.
- 1993/1996. Supervisor of the project of the Italian Ministry of Health: “Unlimited culturing and banking of multipotential stem cells of the human central nervous system”.
- 1996-1999. Supervisor of the project of the Italian Ministry of Health: “Autologous transplantation for the therapy of Parkinson’s disease”.
- 1996-1997. Adjunct Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Milan; Course of Physiology I.
- 1995-1998. Vice-Director of Research Neurospheres Ltd., Dept of Pathology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
- 1999. Head of the Laboratory of Cellular Neuropharmacology, National Neurological Institute, Milan, Italy.
- 2000-2002. Adjunct Professor, Department of Physiology, “Universita’ Vita Salute”, HSR, Milan, Italy. Coordinator of the National Project of the Ministry of Health: “Characterization and plasticity of somatic stem cells for the therapy of human diseases”. Coordinator of the National Project of the Ministry of Health: “Neural stem cells and gene therapy for the cure of Alzheimer’s Disease”.
- 2002. Member of the National Committee on Stem Cells of the Italian Ministry of Health. Consultant of the British Committee on Stem Cells of the House of Lords of England. Member of the Committee on Stem Cells of the Pontifical State of the Vatican.
- 2003-2005. Director of Research of ConStem: Italian Consortium for Stem Cell Research Co-director Stem Cell Research Institute, Fondazione San Raffaele, Milan.
- Assistant Professor of Cell Biology,
- 2005 to date. Adjunct Professor of Cell Biology, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia
- Founder and President of StemGen Spa, a biotech company in the Neuroncology area 2007 to date; Scientific Director, Neural Stem Cells Bank, Terni
- 2008 to date. Scientific Director, Institute for Tissue Engineering, Ospedale Niguarda, Milan
- 1st Jan 2010 to date. Scientific Director, IRCSS, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo
- 1st Jan 2010 to date. Scientific Director, Istituto CSS-Mendel, Rome.
PROFESSIONAL DUTIES
- 1987 to date. More than 200 Oral and poster presentations at scientific international meetings
- 1996-to date. Reviewer for scientific Journals including, among several: Nature, Science, Development, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Nature Reviews Cancer, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuroscience, Stem Cells, JEM, Lancet.
- 1998-to date. Invited speaker at over 100 international scientific meetings
AWARDS AND HONORS
- 1990 Award of the Italian Association for Neurological Research (ARIN)
- 2000 Honorary Fellow Panelist of the World Economic Forum 2000 (Davos, Switzerland).
- 2001 Award of the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC); Speaker Emeritus at the National Academy of Sciences “dei Lincei”; Speaker Emeritius at the Pio Manzu’ Foundation Worldwide Meeting: “The Fire Within The Crystal.
- 2002 Award of the Italian Life Science Association for Scientific Achievements
- 2003 Speaker Emeritus presenting on Somatic Stem Cells at the European Commission in Brussels.
- 2005 Translational Research Excellence Award of the Brain Tumor UK Association (Shared with Dr. F. Dimeco and S.Piccirillo)
- 2007 Excellence Award of the Atena Foundation for Research in Neuroncology
- 2011 Hotchkiss Brain Institute Neuroscience Alumnus of the Year Award
- 2012 Excellence Award of the ANMIL Foundation for Research on adult stem cells and the consequent results for ALS
PATENTS
- US6897060
“Composition comprising multipotent neural stem cells for generation of hematopoietic cells”. Inventors: Christopher R. Bjornson, Rod L. Rietze, Brent A. Reynolds, Angelo L. Vescovi - US20100136081
“Hyaluronic acid derivative and neural stem cells for SCI and PNT regeneration”. Inventors: Alessandra PAVESIO, Angelo Vescovi, Fabrizio Gelain, Maurizio Verga - US7204979
“Generation of hematopoietic cells from multipotent neural stem cells”. Inventors: Christopher R. Bjornson, Rod L. Rietze, Brent A. Reynolds, Angelo L. Vescovi - US6638501
“Use of multipotent neural stem cell progeny to augment non-neural tissues”. Inventors: Christopher R. Bjornson, Rod L. Rietze, Brent A. Reynolds, Angelo L. Vescovi - US20100167999
“Inhibition of the tumorigenic potential of tumor stem cells by LIF and BMPS ”. Inventors: Angelo Luigi Vescovi, Brent Allen Reynolds - US 2012/0083454 A1
“EPH receptor expression in tumor stem cells ”. Inventors: Angelo Luigi Vescovi, Elena Binda
Guido Riccardi
Deputy Chairman
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Guido Riccardi holds a Bachelor degree Economics and Business Administration from University Bocconi of Milan in 1980. In the same year, he started his career in Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. In 1983 Guido Riccardi was admitted to the Roll of Dottori Commercialisti of Milan and since January 1984 to present he started as founding partner in Studio Riccardi-Salom-Tedeschi in Milan.
His specializations include: assistance to merchant banks and private equity funds, both for consultancy to various advisory, for structuring acquisition, incorpotation and administration of new-companies and for assistance in extraordinary operations connected. Actually legal Auditor in a listed company at Borsa Italiana di Milano.
Maurizio Colombo
Board Member
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Maurizio Colombo was born in Milan in 1960. Today he is the Vice President of Sapio Group (www.grupposapio.it/en). After taking the Master’s Degree in Law, in 1986 he joined the company and since then he has held various operative positions up to the development of the Healthcare Sector of the Group and the Group’s growth in Europe. He is the creator of the Sapio Award for the Scientific Research and Innovation (www.premiosapio.it).
He firmly believes in the possibility of improving the patients’ life by the development of a coordinated and controlled homecare service web. He chairs the Healthcare Innovation Committee of the Group aiming to find care treatments more and more sustainable for the Healthcare System.
He founded Biorep, the first Italian Bio Bank, committed to biorepository services of any kind of tissues and cells on behalf of third parties. Today Biorep boasts several pharmaceutical companies and some of the most important American Foundations among its customers.
He sits on the Board of Directors and steering committee of various companies active in biotechnologies. Together with Prof. Angelo Vescovi, he founded the non-profit Association Neurothon, today called Revert and is the co-fouder of Stemgen.
Mario Carnevale Arella
Board Member
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EDUCATION
1986-1991 Degree in Economics with honours at Bocconi University – Milano
EXPERIENCE
1991-1995 Financial assistant Bracco Spa, pharmaceutical group
1995- Present: CFO in family firm Arella & C Spa – Italy – Fashion company
LANGUAGES
English / French
German (Basic)
Riccardo Zingales
Board Member
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Graduated in Company Economics from the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan in 1985.
Has been on the Milan Register of Business Consultants since 1989.
Since 1985 he has exercised his profession with business consulting firms in Milan and since 1990 has had his own firm (Zingales & Associati), giving tax and corporate assistance to Italian and foreign companies, including banks and companies listed on regulated markets.
Has a specific experience in the corporate and regulatory issues of listed companies and in assistance and consulting in acquisitions and disposal of shareholdings and business arms, contracts and financial negotiations.
Since 1985 has held positions on Boards of Statutory Auditors including those of listed companies, Director of banks and listed companies.
Paola Zaccarini
Head of Clinical Research & Development
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International pharmaceutical executive with 20+ years of experience in Strategic Planning, Commercial P&L and BD&L at Global, EU and Country level within big Pharma and in establishing European operations from scratch for Biotech start-ups. 13 product launches and input into over 60 development projects. Focus on oncology, haematology, specialty and rare diseases.
Research Team
In the research team, the CSO Prof. Vescovi closely works with a staff of 1 scientist and 1 technician
Dott. Alberto Visioli
Scientist
Dott. Fabrizio Giani
Technician
Partnership with Unit Cancer and Stem Cells – ISBReMIT
Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza – San Giovanni Rotondo (FG), Italy