management

Paolo Rizzardi, MD, internist, is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AurorA-TT, a Technology Transfer initiative fully focused in the biotech sector, and Co-Founder, Chairman&CEO of Altheia Science. He combines a strong scientific background with managerial skills gained in substantially contributing to successfully develop biotechnology companies and to achieve the market approval of advanced therapy medicinal products in the cell&gene therapy and oncology field. After spending more than 10 years in academia in Italy, UK, and Switzerland in developing programs for innovative immune-based/vaccination strategies in patients with HIV/AIDS, he worked for more than 15 years in the cell&gene therapy biotech sector, developing a unique expertise in R&D, CMC, clinical and business development, development, engineering, and IP from target validation to market approval.

He published over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts and textbook chapters (4500+ citations, h-index 32), including seminal contribution to the field of immunopathogenesis and innovative treatment of HIV infection.

Rita Milazzo, PhD, is a senior researcher with over 10 years of experience in the field of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.

She advanced in her carrier working with the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milano (SR-TIGET), where she focused on the identification of critical factors enhancing HSC-based transplant procedures for diseases with severe nervous system involvement.

Her research contributed to the development of innovative strategies for the treatment of neurological genetic diseases and in the translation of pre-clinical data into the design of human clinical trials as in the case of metachromatic leukodystrophy.

Her work is published in peer-reviewed journals in the field of cell and gene therapy.

Pierluigi Paracchi is Co-Founder and Venture Consultant of AurorA-TT, a Technology Transfer initiative fully focused in the biotech sector, and Co-Founder, Board Member of Altheia Science.

He has more than 15 years of experience as Venture Capitalist and Biotech Entrepreneur. He was Founder & CEO of Quantica, the first Italian VC firm exclusively dedicated to research and academic spin-out companies and Venture Consultant at Sofinnova Partners. He was investors and Board Member at EOS – Ethical Oncology Science, acquired by Clovis Oncology for 470M.

He is Co-Founder and CEO of Genenta Science, spin-out from San Raffaele Hospital: gene therapy for tumor treatment; Board Member at Assobiotec and Chairman of the SMEs group.

Moufida Ben Nasr M, PhD, is an immunologist. She is Research Fellow at Nephrology Division, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

She published over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She is focused in immunology and stem cell biology to develop strategies for transplantation and the treatment of hematological malignancies and autoimmune diseases.

Her publication track record includes important contribution to the field of immunobiology and immunotherapy of type 1 diabetes, identifying mechanisms to be targeted to prevent the attack of autoreactive T cells.