Mauro Ferrari

Last updated

Mauro Ferrari
Born (1959-07-07) 7 July 1959 (age 65)
Padova, Italy
NationalityItaly, United States
Alma mater
Known for
Spouse
Paola Ferrari
​
(m. 1995)​
Childrenfive
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Nanomedicine
Institutions
Website www.houstonmethodist.org/research/our-faculty/labs/ferrari-lab/

Mauro Ferrari (born 7 July 1959) is a nanoscientist [1] [2] and leader in the field of nanomedicine. He served as special expert on nanotechnology for the National Cancer Institute (2003-2005) and was instrumental in establishing the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer in 2004. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Ferrari held tenured academic positions at UC Berkeley, Ohio State University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center. [8]

Contents

Early life and education

Ferrari was born in Padova, Italy in 1959. He spent his early years in Udine and Florence before attending the University of Padova and earning his Laurea (PhD) in Mathematics in 1985. He moved to Berkeley, California where he earned a master's degree and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley. [9] [10] [11]

Career

Professor of Engineering

Ferrari became an associate professor of engineering at Berkeley, then moved to the Ohio State University as professor of bioengineering, internal medicine, and mechanical engineering. [12] He studied medicine at the Ohio State University concurrent with his faculty appointment from 2002-2004. [13]

Cancer research

He moved to the MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX to become the chair of the department of nanomedicine and biomedical engineering, and then in 2010 accepted the position of president and CEO of the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Houston, TX. [12] Ferrari was appointed as Chief Commercialization Officer of Houston Methodist in 2018, and retired in 2019.[ citation needed ]

ERC President (2020)

In 2019, the European Commission announced the appointment of Ferrari as the next President of the European Research Council (ERC), succeeding Jean-Pierre Bourguignon; he was selected by a search committee chaired by Mario Monti. [14] [15] On 1 January 2020, Ferrari assumed the position of president of the European Research Council (ERC). [14]

Ferrari resigned in 7 April 2020, citing his disappointment at the lack of coordinated EU action to address the COVID-19 pandemic and expressing frustration over opposition to his efforts to launch a scientific program to combat the virus. [16] [17] [18] Ferrari was not alone in his criticism of the EU response to COVID-19. [19]

The ERC countered that calling for specific research was contrary to their mandate. According to Science Magazine, "ERC, set up to reward bottom-up basic research ideas, does not designate money for specific research areas....Other EU organ[ization]s can and do pay for research in particular fields, including COVID-19, but ERC is designed to protect science from politics. Ferrari writes that 'the expected burden of death, suffering, societal transformation, and economic devastation' of the pandemic justifies breaking this rule." [20] [18]

The ERC responded on 8 April 2020: "...we regret Professor Ferrari's statement, which at best is economical with the truth." [21] The ERC stated that on 27 March 2020, following a no-confidence vote by the ERC's Scientific Council, they "requested that Mauro Ferrari resign from his position as ERC’s President". They cited poor conduct in office, exploiting the position to further his own projects, and for consistently failing to represent the interests of the ERC. [22]

Ferrari disputed the ERC claims of his failing to meet his obligations and their accusations of inappropriate outside involvements. [20] [23] [24] [25] In the months following Ferrari's resignation, the EU itself debated whether some funding of the ERC should include some focused research on COVID-19; which is what Ferrari advocated and the ERC adamantly opposed. [26]

Other activities

Corporate boards

Non-profit organizations

Research interests

Ferrari's research uses nanotechnology, microtechnology, physical sciences, mathematics, biomechanics, and material sciences to develop new technologies for health care applications like drug delivery and cancer therapeutics. [1] [31] He leads a physical sciences in oncology center, one of a network of centers sponsored by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Center. The research of this center focuses on understanding the physical and biomechanical biological barriers that reduce the efficacy of cancer therapeutics. [32] He developed a new drug called iNPG-pDox, composed of silicon nanoparticles loaded with polymeric doxorubicin, that had better results at lower doses in animal models compared to standard doxorubicin chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. [33] [2]

Published works

Ferrari has produced more than 350 publications, including seven books and 41 issued patents in the US and Europe. In June 2020, Ferrari and his lab colleagues had a publication retracted from Science Advances Journal due to various image duplications suggesting possible scientific misconduct. [34]

Books

Journal articles

Patents

Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions

Personal life

Ferrari met and married his first wife Marialuisa while they were both students at the University of Padova, and they moved to Berkeley, California. While he was faculty at the University of California Berkeley, Marialuisa died from cancer. [39] [10] [11] Ferrari married Paola Del Zotto from Udine, Italy in 1995. He has five children, including two sets of twins. [39] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanotechnology</span> Technology with features near one nanometer

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing properties of matter. This definition of nanotechnology includes all types of research and technologies that deal with these special properties. It is common to see the plural form "nanotechnologies" as well as "nanoscale technologies" to refer to research and applications whose common trait is scale. An earlier understanding of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabricating macroscale products, now referred to as molecular nanotechnology.

Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology such as biological machines. Current problems for nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanorobotics</span> Emerging technology field

Nanoid robotics, or for short, nanorobotics or nanobotics, is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots, which are called nanorobots or simply nanobots, whose components are at or near the scale of a nanometer. More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots with devices ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. The terms nanobot, nanoid, nanite, nanomachine and nanomite have also been used to describe such devices currently under research and development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanobiotechnology</span> Intersection of nanotechnology and biology

Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanochemistry</span> Combination of chemistry and nanoscience

Nanochemistry is an emerging sub-discipline of the chemical and material sciences that deals with the development of new methods for creating nanoscale materials. The term "nanochemistry" was first used by Ozin in 1992 as 'the uses of chemical synthesis to reproducibly afford nanomaterials from the atom "up", contrary to the nanoengineering and nanophysics approach that operates from the bulk "down"'. Nanochemistry focuses on solid-state chemistry that emphasizes synthesis of building blocks that are dependent on size, surface, shape, and defect properties, rather than the actual production of matter. Atomic and molecular properties mainly deal with the degrees of freedom of atoms in the periodic table. However, nanochemistry introduced other degrees of freedom that controls material's behaviors by transformation into solutions. Nanoscale objects exhibit novel material properties, largely as a consequence of their finite small size. Several chemical modifications on nanometer-scaled structures approve size dependent effects.

The impact of nanotechnology extends from its medical, ethical, mental, legal and environmental applications, to fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, computing, materials science, and communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research</span> Facility in Basel, Switzerland

The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) is a biomedical research institute founded in 1970. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the FMI is affiliated with the University of Basel and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). It is named after Friedrich Miescher. As of 2021, the FMI has around 340 collaborators, of which 20 are research group leaders, over 80 are postdoctoral collaborators and over 80 are postgraduate students participating in the FMI International PhD Program. The FMI is directed by Dirk Schübeler.

Heart nanotechnology is the "Engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale".

The applications of nanotechnology, commonly incorporate industrial, medicinal, and energy uses. These include more durable construction materials, therapeutic drug delivery, and higher density hydrogen fuel cells that are environmentally friendly. Being that nanoparticles and nanodevices are highly versatile through modification of their physiochemical properties, they have found uses in nanoscale electronics, cancer treatments, vaccines, hydrogen fuel cells, and nanographene batteries.

Vladimir Petrovich Torchilin is a Soviet, Russian and American biochemist, pharmacologist, and an expert in medical nanotechnology. Torchillin is a University Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University. He also serves as a director at both the Center for Translational Cancer Nanomedicine and at the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine at Northeastern University.

Bernd Pichler is a German biomedical engineer and expert in preclinical and molecular imaging as well as in imaging technology. He is Chair of the Department of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy as well as Director of the Werner Siemens Imaging Center at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tübingen and member of the University Hospital Executive Board of Directors.

Nanoinformatics is the application of informatics to nanotechnology. It is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding nanomaterials, their properties, and their interactions with biological entities, and using that information more efficiently. It differs from cheminformatics in that nanomaterials usually involve nonuniform collections of particles that have distributions of physical properties that must be specified. The nanoinformatics infrastructure includes ontologies for nanomaterials, file formats, and data repositories.

Patrick Couvreur, born 1950 in Schaerbeek (Brussels), is a French pharmacologist who specialises in medical nanotechnology and is currently professor at the University of Paris-Sud.

Thomas J. Webster is an American biomedical engineer, researcher, and entrepreneur. Throughout his over 25-year academic career, his research group has produced several books and book chapters. He has over 1350 publications and has an H-index of 118.

Hamid Ghandehari is an Iranian-American drug delivery research scientist, and a professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah. His research is focused in recombinant polymers for drug and gene delivery, nanotoxicology of dendritic and inorganic constructs, water-soluble polymers for targeted delivery and poly(amidoamine) dendrimers for oral delivery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Prausnitz</span> Chemical engineer

Mark Robert Prausnitz is an American chemical engineer, currently Regents’ Professor and J. Erskine Love, Jr. Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also serves as adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at Emory University and Adjunct Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He is known for pioneering microneedle technology for minimally invasive drug and vaccine administration, which has found applications in transdermal, ocular, oral, and sustained release delivery systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Kabanov (chemist)</span>

Alexander Viktorovich Kabanov, is a Russian and American chemist, an educator, an entrepreneur, and a researcher in the fields of drug delivery and nanomedicine.

Moein Moghimi is a British professor and researcher in the fields of nanomedicine, drug delivery and biomaterials. He is currently the professor of Pharmaceutics and Nanomedicine at the School of Pharmacy and the Translational and Clinical Research Institute at Newcastle University. He is also an adjoint professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado Denver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lajos Balogh (scientist)</span> Hungarian-American scientist

Lajos Peter Balogh, mainly referred to as Lou Balogh, is a Hungarian-American scientist known for his research on polymers, dendrimer nanocomposites, and nanomedicine. Balogh is the editor-in-chief of Precision Nanomedicine (PRNANO). Based on his career-long citation numbers, he belongs to the World's Top 2% Scientists.

Ankur Singh is an Indian-American biomedical engineer and scientist whose research focuses on engineering immune system. He is a Carl Ring Family Endowed Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Center for Immunoengineering at Georgia Tech.

References

  1. 1 2 "Mauro Ferrari". Scholar.google.com. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Nano-balls filled with poison wipe out metastatic cancer in mice". Science . 14 March 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology". National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Kulkarni, Rajan (2007). "Nano-Bio-Genesis: tracing the rise of nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology as 'big science'". Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration. 2 (3): 3. doi: 10.1186/1747-5333-2-3 . PMC   1976605 . PMID   17629932.
  5. ↑ Burgess, Rob. 2012. "Understanding Nanomedicine: An Introductory Textbook". Singapore: Pan Stanford. ISBN   9789814316385
  6. ↑ Jones, Dan (2007). "Cancer nanotechnology: small, but heading for the big time". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 6 (3): 174–175. doi:10.1038/nrd2285. PMID   17396287. S2CID   7836010.
  7. ↑ "Nanotechnology". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 8 (11): 911. 2009. doi: 10.1038/nrd3029 .
  8. ↑ "Leadership Team - Board of Directors: Mauro Ferrari, PhD". Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  9. ↑ Ferrari, Mauro (23 March 2011). "Transcript: The Marvels of Nanotechnology" (PDF). Columbia University Crossroads Culture Center. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 Ferrari, Mauro (23 March 2011). "Event: The Marvels of Nanotechnology". Columbia University Crossroads Culture Center. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  11. 1 2 Chien, Shanley (2017). "TMC Spotlight: Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D." TMC News. 4 (2): 7–8. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  12. 1 2 "Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D Joins The Methodist Hospital Research Institute as President and CEO". Newswise. 12 August 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  13. ↑ Ferrari M (2009). "Straight talk with Mauro Ferrari". Nature Medicine. 15 (7): 716–7. doi:10.1038/nm0709-716. PMID   19584847. S2CID   205380426.
  14. 1 2 Commission appoints Mauro Ferrari as next President of the European Research Council European Commission, press release of 14 May 2019.
  15. ↑ "ERC member:Mauro Ferrari". European Research Council. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  16. ↑ "EU science chief resigns with blast at coronavirus response". Financial Times. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  17. ↑ "Frustrated president of EU's top science panel quits over COVID-19 response". The Globe and Mail Inc. 7 April 2020.
  18. 1 2 Ferrari, Mauro (7 April 2020). "Return to the Frontlines, to the Frontiers - Statement by Mauro Ferrari" . Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  19. ↑ McGee, Luke (10 April 2020). "Analysis: The EU has bungled its response to coronavirus and it might never fully recover". CNN. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  20. 1 2 Wallace, Nicholas (8 April 2020). "Top EU scientist pushed out over coronavirus spat". Science Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  21. ↑ European Research Council. "RESIGNATION OF MAURO FERRARI – STATEMENT BY THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL". ERC. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  22. ↑ Resignation of Mauro Ferrari – Statement by the Scientific Council European Commission, ERC press release of 8 April 2020.
  23. ↑ Kelly, Éanna (16 April 2020). "Mauro Ferrari rejects criticism of his performance levelled by the European Research Council's scientific board: Ex-ERC chief defends his record and says he remains a supporter of the ERC's objectives". Science Business. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  24. ↑ Lantier, Alex (13 April 2020). "Fired researcher Mauro Ferrari denounces EU inaction on COVID-19". wsws.org. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  25. ↑ Wallace, Nicholas (14 April 2020). "EU science chief defends record after ouster over coronavirus plans". Science Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  26. ↑ Kelly, Éanna; Hudson, Richard L. (29 October 2020). "Exclusive: A look inside the last days of Mauro Ferrari at the European Research Council". ScienceBusiness. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  27. ↑ Mauro Ferrari AMBER.
  28. ↑ About Us Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.
  29. ↑ Dead Sea Research Institute
  30. ↑ Engineering Leadership Board Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston.
  31. ↑ "Mauro Ferrari". Houstonmethodist.org. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  32. ↑ "Phase 1 - Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers: The Methodist Hospital Research Institute". National Cancer Institute: Physical Sciences in Oncology. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  33. ↑ Xu R, et al. (2016). "An injectable nanoparticle generator enhances delivery of cancer therapeutics". Nat Biotechnol. 34 (4): 414–8. doi:10.1038/nbt.3506. PMC   5070674 . PMID   26974511.
  34. ↑ Nizzero, Sara; Goel, Shreya; Hinkle, Louis E.; Wu, Xiaoyan; Li, Chao; Ferrari, Mauro; Shen, Haifa (June 2020). "Retraction of the Research Article: "Molecular targeting of FATP4 transporter for oral delivery of therapeutic peptide" by Z. Hu, S. Nizzero, S. Goel, L. E. Hinkle, X. Wu, C. Li, M. Ferrari and H. Shen". Science Advances. 6 (26): eabc9572. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.9572N. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc9752. ISSN   2375-2548. PMC   7319764 . PMID   32637628.
  35. ↑ "Three BME Faculty Elected to American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellows". The University of Texas. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  36. ↑ "Mauro Ferrari". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  37. ↑ "CRS Founders Award Recipients". Controlledreleasesociety.org. Archived from the original on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  38. ↑ "TNanomedicine pioneer Mauro Ferrari at ETH Zurich". ETH Zurich. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  39. 1 2 Ferrari, Mauro (23 March 2011). "Transcript: The Marvels of Nanotechnology" (PDF). Columbia University Crossroads Culture Center. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
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