Principal Investigator Other positions: Professor of Medical Genetics, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Sandro Banfi obtained his Medical Degree and undertook his Neurology Residency at the University of Naples “Federico II”. In 1991, he moved to the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine where he worked on a post-doctoral project aimed at the elucidation of the genetic basis of Spinocerebellar Ataxias. In 1995, he moved back to Italy where he joined TIGEM as an independent investigator and shifted his research focus to data mining and functional genomics approaches in order to identify biologically relevant genes with potential roles in disease pathogenesis. In 2019, he became Full Professor of Medical Genetics at University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. He is also coordinator of the PhD program in Human Genetics at TIGEM in affiliation with the UK Open University. Sandro Banfi has made significant contributions to the definition of the molecular basis of Inherited Retinal Diseases and to the identification and characterization of a number of genes, both coding and noncoding, endowed with relevant roles in retinal biology.
Associate Investigator Other positions: "Rita-Levi Montalcini" Associate Professor of Molecular Biology - Department of Translational Medicine, University of Naples "Federico II" "Armenise-Harvard" Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Integrative Genomics
Davide Cacchiarelli obtained a Master’s Degree and a Doctorate Degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology from University of Rome “La Sapienza”, working on mechanisms of RNA regulation. In 2011, he moved to The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and The Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University to focus his research on the rules governing cell fate transitions and reprogramming using genomic approaches. He returned to Italy in 2017 thanks to the Armenise Harvard Foundation Career Development Award and now he leads the Laboratory of Integrative Genomics at TIGEM and coordinates a research group focused on understanding the dynamics of cell fate decisions, funded by an ERC-StG. Davide Cacchiarelli is an experienced genomics leader with a demonstrated history of working in academia and industry. He has made important contributions to the field of descriptive, functional and clinical genomics, epigenomics, and miRNA function. Cacchiarelli’s research leverages an interdisciplinary approach that brings together pluripotency and stem cell biology with cellular engineering, molecular diagnostics, genomic approaches and mathematical modeling.
Principal Investigator Genomic Medicine Program Coordinator Head of Bioinformatics Core Other positions Full Professor of Biomedical Engineerig, Dept. of Chemica, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II Diego di Bernardo received his "Laurea cum laude" in Electronic Engineering in 1997 from the University of Naples "Federico II". In 2001, thanks to a 3-year European Commission “Marie Curie” Fellowship, he was awarded a PhD in Medical Physics from the University of Newcastle School of Medicine, UK (lab of Prof. Alan Murray). He was a postdoctoral researcher first at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Center in Cambridge (UK) with Dr. Tim Hubbard and then in the laboratory of Prof. Jim Collins at Boston University, USA. In 2003, he became a Principal Investigator at TIGEM, where he also acts as Coordinator of the Genomic Medicine Program and Supervisor of the Bioinformatics Core. In 2007, he became Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Naples "Federico II", in 2015 Associate Professor and then Full Professor in 2022. His research interests are strongly cross-disciplinary, blending Biomedical and Control Engineering with Molecular and Cell Biology. His lab has developed integrated experimental and computational approaches to reverse engineer gene networks and for computational drug repositioning. He is also one of the pioneers of Biomolecular Control, which integrates Synthetic Biology with Control Engineering. He is the author of over 100 publications in international scientific journals. His research has been funded by Telethon, AIRC, Italian Ministries of Research and Health, HFSP, and by the European Union.
Assistant Investigator Other positions: Research Fellow, DICMaPI - Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II", Italy Gennaro Gambardella received his M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science in November 2009 from the University of Naples "Federico II". In 2013, he completed his Ph.D. studies in “Bioinformatics and Computational Biology” at the University of Naples "Federico II", in the laboratory of Prof. Diego di Bernardo at Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM). He then held a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the King’s College of London (UK) in the laboratory of Dr. Francesca Ciccarelli until August 2015. From September 2015 to April 2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Prof. Diego di Bernardo at TIGEM. In May 2018, thanks to a 2-year STAR (Sostegno Territoriale alle Attività di Ricerca) grant, he became a junior Principal Investigator (PI) at the University of Naples "Federico II". In September 2020, he became an independent researcher at TIGEM in Naples where he now runs his own lab. From May 2020, he became Research Associate in the Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering of the University of Naples “Federico II”. His research interests are strongly interdisciplinary, he works with a multidisciplinary team of biologists, mathematicians, oncologists, engineers and computer scientists who apply molecular genetics, data analysis and theoretical modeling to study cancer biology and other genetic diseases.
Coordinator of the Telethon Undiagnosed Program Other positions: Professor of Medical Genetics, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Vincenzo Nigro obtained the Laurea cum laude in Medicine from the University of Naples “Federico II”. After a fellowship in General Pathology at the Second University of Naples, he became Associate Professor. Vincenzo joined TIGEM in 2000 as Associate Investigator and, from 2016 as Principle Investigator of the Telethon Undiagnosed Diseases Program.
In 2006 he became Full Professor of Medical Genetics at Vanvitelli University, where he acts as Head of Medical Genetics and Cardiomyology UOSID. Currently, he is also Director of the School of Specialization in Medical Genetics.
He is author of over 215 articles published in peer reviewed journals (h=52, Scholar). One of his most significant findings is the identification of delta-sarcoglycan which causes limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and other Mendelian disorders.
