prof. Ennio Tasciotti

Biografia

Dr. Ennio Tasciotti is the Founder and Director of the Human Longevity Program of the IRCCS San Raffaele and a Professor of Biotechnology at the San Raffaele University. Previously he served as the Chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine (18 faculties, 12 admin staff, 120 researchers) and as Founder and Director of the Center for Biomimetic Medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute (15 affiliated faculties, 80 researchers), and as Founder and Director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Regeneration (20 surgeons, 50 research fellows and residents) at the Houston Methodist Hospital, one of the top 20 hospitals in America. He is considered a pioneer in the field of biomimetic medicine and among the first to exploit the regenerative power of the immune system to regenerate organs and tissues. He contributed to 14 technical books, presented at over 300 conferences and published 185 research articles (H-index: 50, over 10.000 citations). His research output has been featured in press releases, scientific and mainstream media, research outlets, and scientific blogs collectively viewed by over 100 million people. His scientific activity at the intersection of engineering, pharmacology, biology and medicine resulted in 12 international patents on nanomaterials for biomedical use, some of which have been licensed to private companies.

Dr. Tasciotti’s research was selected as one of the top 5 discoveries in nanomedicine by Nature Medicine in 2010. In 2011 he was recognized as the best scientist in cancer research by ISSNAF. In 2012 he received the Foundation Award in Translational Research, and in 2013 and 2015 the President's Award for Transformational Excellence. In 2014 he entered the list of the “Top 10 Innovators Under 40" of the American Chamber of Commerce, in 2016 received the Career Award of the NanoScience Symposium, and the Men of Distinction Award in 2018. Since 2010, he attracted over $ 15 million of funding from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Pentagon to create solutions to repair war wounds, and $ 10 million from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to develop targeted therapies for cancer. In his leadership positions he also managed over $ 25 million in institutional support, promoted new scientific programs, organized fundraising campaigns, and supported the spreading of medical knowledge in the patient population.

Dr. Tasciotti created a multidisciplinary team of scientists (physicists, chemists, pharmacologists, engineers, biologists, medical doctors) and mentored 40 undergraduates, 30 PhD students, 35 postdoctoral fellows and 10 medical residents.

His team members received over 50 national and international awards, and his trainees secured executive roles in the private sector and faculty positions in academic institutions worldwide. Dr. Tasciotti coordinated highly interdisciplinary collaborative research groups in the context of multi-center scientific programs with leading institutions (Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, Rice University), and managed intra- and inter- institutional research efforts to address today’s unmet clinical challenges. He was a permanent member of Houston Methodist strategic committees for personalized medicine, nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, and digital medicine, and assisted consulting firms in identifying areas of excellence, critical needs and expansion plans at the vanguard of applied, translational and clinical research.

As an expert in preclinical and translational research he serves as auditor and reviewer for international think tanks, working groups, and expert panels for NIH, DoD, the European Research Council (ERC), government agencies and private institutions in USA, Italy, Israel, Australia, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Netherlands, Switzerland. He participated to over 40 national and international study sections, evaluated over 1000 scientific and clinical projects and assigned research funding exceeding $ 1.5 billion. For three years he served as the President of the Italian Ministry of Health Review Panel for Young Investigators, oversaw the revision of 4,000 proposals and assigned over $ 150 million in grants and projects.

Since 2016 he served on the Advisory Board of the TMCx, the largest incubator in Texas to support the development of innovative medical technologies. Due to his knowledge of the academic, clinical, and regulatory worlds, he helped linking scientists to entrepreneurs, financial investments, experts in clinical studies and FDA regulation, and assisted with pilot studies, tech transfer and licensing of intellectual property.

As Scientific Advisor he contributed to the activities of the Center for Device Innovation, the Johnson&Johnson hub for the rapid prototyping of medical devices. He also participated to the AT&T Foundry - the only 5G hub for Healthcare in the USA – and served as a liaison between digital health companies and hospitals to identify areas of common strategic development and projects of mutual commercial benefit.

Dr. Tasciotti is the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of three startups focused on the development of biomedical technologies. In this role, Dr. Tasciotti coordinates and oversees the design of proof of concept studies, the scaling up of manufacturing processes, the acquisition of Good Laboratory Practices, the definition of Standard Operating Procedures for the experimental settings, the preparation and submission of regulatory technical files for FDA and EMA.

Dr. Tasciotti serves as a strategic and scientific consultant for national and international companies in the biomedical, pharma and digital sectors (Roche Pharma, Sclavo Diagnostic International, Novartis, AlfaSigma, Gilead, Corden Pharma, Exact Sciences Corp., Aboca, Inpeco, Ferrero, Ushio, G-Factor, CubeLabs, ComoNext, Bio4Dreams, Friuli Innovazione, AREA Science Park, CORIS Veneto, Cascade Global UK, Technoscience Park, SEC Newgate, Over, EOS Consulting, Protiviti). His fields of expertise span from materials for regenerative medicine (including plastic and reconstructive surgery), pharmacological approaches to drug delivery (targeted and personalized therapies, inflammation and immune treatments), technologies for nano- and micro-formulations (of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals), and digital healthcare (AI, machine learning and big data).