Andrea Ballabio
- Principal Investigator, former Scientific Director, Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM), Italy
Dr. Ballabio obtained an M.D. degree in 1981 at the University of Naples, Italy, where he completed his residency in Pediatrics. He was then post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Genetics and Biophysics in Naples and at Guy’s hospital in London UK. In 1989 he moved to the USA where he was Assistant and then Associate Professor and Co-director of the Human Genome Center at the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In 1994 he became the founding director of the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM). In 1998 he became President of the European Society of Human Genetics. He is currently Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Naples “Federico II” and Visiting Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He won 3 times the Advanced 5 year-grant Grant of the European Research Council (ERC). In 2016 he won the Louis-Jeantet prize for Medicine. Dr. Ballabio is also an Advisory Board Member of INGM Milan, IGBMC Strasbourg, Human Technopole Milan, and VIMM Padua. He is Co-Founder of CASMA Therapeutics and serves as scientific advisor in Next Generation Diagnostics and Avilar Therapeutics. He has been an EMBO member since 1998 and was a former member of the EMBO council. He authored over 400 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. He obtained the Honorary Titles from the President of Italy of “Commendatore” in 2007 and “Grande Ufficiale” of the Italian Republic in 2021. In 2022 he received the “Laurea Honoris Causa” (honorary title) in Biological Sciences from the University of Camerino. He then won the Feltrinelli Prize in 2021 and subsequently became member of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome.