Luisa Minghetti

  • Director of Research Coordination and Support Service, National Institute of Health

Neurobiologist, she has a PhD in Cell biology and physiology from the University of Bologna. After a post-doc at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London, in 1992 she moved to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS). At ISS, from 1998 to 2004 she directed the Neurobiology Unit and from 2008 to 2016 the Experimental Neurology Unit. Her research activity has focused on the role of neuroinflammation in the processes of neurodegeneration and neuroprotection, the identification of prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers, and the modulation of neuroinflammatory processes by diet and environmental contaminants. She is author of over 140 scientific publications, and she has been invited speaker at numerous national and international congresses. In 2017 she took over the role of Director of the newly established Research Coordination and Promotion Unit at the ISS. Ever since, she moved from active research to strategic coordination and promotion of scientific research at the ISS. She holds a leading role in the European research infrastructures (ERIC) in the biomedical and health field EATRIS, ECRIN and BBMRI, on a joint mandate from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of University and Research. She represents the ISS in various institutional settings, including the Board of Presidents of Public Research Bodies, as the ISS President’s permanent alternate, and inter-ministerial committees. She is a member of the National Ethics Committee for clinical trials of public research bodies and other national public institutions as well as of the scientific committees of some PNRR projects.