Mauro Ferrari

Last updated

Mauro Ferrari
Born (1959-07-07) 7 July 1959 (age 64)
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] On 1 January 2020, Ferrari was made president of the European Research Council (ERC). [8] Following a vote of no confidence, on 27 March 2020, "all 19 active members of the ERC’s Scientific Council individually and unanimously requested that Mauro Ferrari resign from his position as ERC’s President", due to poor conduct in office, exploiting the position to further his own projects, and for consistently failing to represent the interests of the ERC. [9] On 7 April 2020, Ferrari officially resigned, stating to the media that he was "extremely disappointed by the European response” to the pandemic and expressing frustration over opposition to his efforts to launch a scientific program to combat the virus. [10]

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 in Mathematics in 1985. He moved to Berkeley, California where he earned his master's and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley. [11] [12] [13]

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. [14] He studied medicine at the Ohio State University concurrent with his faculty appointment from 2002-2004. [15]

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. [14] 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 appointed 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. [8] He took the post on 1 January 2020.

Ferrari resigned in 7 April 2020, citing his disappointment at the lack of coordinated EU action to address the COVID-19 pandemic. [16] [17] Ferrari was not alone in his criticism of the EU response to COVID-19. [18] 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." [19] [17] The ERC responded on 8 April 2020: "...we regret Professor Ferrari's statement, which at best is economical with the truth." [20] The ERC stated that Ferrari's "resignation in fact followed a written unanimous vote of no confidence”. [21] [22] They cited "a complete lack of appreciation for the raison-d’être of the ERC", "a lack of engagement with the ERC", with Ferrari "failing to participate in many important meetings, spending extensive time in the USA and failing to defend the ERC’s programme and mission," making "several personal initiatives within the Commission" without consulting the ERC, and being "involved in multiple external enterprises, some academic and some commercial, which took a lot of his time and effort and appeared on several occasions to take precedence over his commitment to ERC." [22] Ferrari disputed the ERC claims of his failing to meet his obligations and their accusations of inappropriate outside involvements. [23] [24] [25] [26] 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. [27]

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] [32] 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. [33] 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. [34] [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. [35]

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. [40] [12] [13] Ferrari married Paola Del Zotto from Udine, Italy in 1995. He has five children, including two sets of twins. [40] [12]

Related Research Articles

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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. 1 2 Commission appoints Mauro Ferrari as next President of the European Research Council European Commission, press release of 14 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Resignation of Mauro Ferrari – Statement by the Scientific Council European Commission, ERC press release of 8 April 2020.
  10. ↑ "Frustrated president of EU's top science panel quits over COVID-19 response". The Globe and Mail Inc. 7 April 2020.
  11. ↑ Ferrari, Mauro (23 March 2011). "Transcript: The Marvels of Nanotechnology" (PDF). Columbia University Crossroads Culture Center. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 Ferrari, Mauro (23 March 2011). "Event: The Marvels of Nanotechnology". Columbia University Crossroads Culture Center. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  13. 1 2 Chien, Shanley (2017). "TMC Spotlight: Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D." TMC News. 4 (2): 7–8. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D Joins The Methodist Hospital Research Institute as President and CEO". Newswise. 12 August 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Ferrari M (2009). "Straight talk with Mauro Ferrari". Nature Medicine. 15 (7): 716–7. doi:10.1038/nm0709-716. PMID   19584847. S2CID   205380426.
  16. ↑ "EU science chief resigns with blast at coronavirus response". Financial Times. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  17. 1 2 Ferrari, Mauro (7 April 2020). "Return to the Frontlines, to the Frontiers - Statement by Mauro Ferrari" . Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ Wallace, Nicholas (8 April 2020). "Top EU scientist pushed out over coronavirus spat". Science Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  20. ↑ European Research Council. "RESIGNATION OF MAURO FERRARI – STATEMENT BY THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL". ERC. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  21. ↑ Boffrey, Daniel (8 April 2020). "EU trades barbs with top scientist forced out in Covid-19 row". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  22. 1 2 "ERC president resigns". Science Business. 8 April 2020.
  23. ↑ Wallace, Nicholas (14 April 2020). "EU science chief defends record after ouster over coronavirus plans". Science . Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ Lantier, Alex (13 April 2020). "Fired researcher Mauro Ferrari denounces EU inaction on COVID-19". wsws.org. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  26. ↑ Wallace, Nicholas (14 April 2020). "EU science chief defends record after ouster over coronavirus plans". Science Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  27. ↑ 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.
  28. ↑ Mauro Ferrari AMBER.
  29. ↑ About Us Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.
  30. ↑ Dead Sea Research Institute
  31. ↑ Engineering Leadership Board Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston.
  32. ↑ "Mauro Ferrari". Houstonmethodist.org. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  33. ↑ "Phase 1 - Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers: The Methodist Hospital Research Institute". National Cancer Institute: Physical Sciences in Oncology. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  34. ↑ 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.
  35. ↑ 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.
  36. ↑ "Three BME Faculty Elected to American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellows". The University of Texas. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  37. ↑ "Mauro Ferrari". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  38. ↑ "CRS Founders Award Recipients". Controlledreleasesociety.org. Archived from the original on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  39. ↑ "TNanomedicine pioneer Mauro Ferrari at ETH Zurich". ETH Zurich. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  40. 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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