Speaker
Prof. Elena Cattaneo, Italy
Her research is focused on the biology of neural stem cells and their potential application, and on the study of the mechanisms underlying Huntington’s disease.
She has obtained the Laurea (Summa cum Laude) and the Doctorate in Biotechnology at the University of Milano. Since 2003 she is Full Professor at the same University.
She has worked for three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T., Cambridge, U.S.A.) in the group of Prof. R.D.G. McKay, a pioneer in the field of neural stem cells. Back in Milano, her laboratory is active since 1994 and is part of the Department of Pharmacological Science, University of Milano.
Elena Cattaneo is Director of the Center for Stem Cell Research of the University of Milan (UniStem). Since 1997 she is a Coalition Investigator of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (H.D.S.A.) and Coordinator of the Huntingtin Function Team (H.D.S.A).
In 2001 she was awarded with “Le Scienze” Prize for Medicine and with a Medal from the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, for her studies on neural stem cells and Huntington’s Disease. Since 2002 she is Member of the Italian Delegation for Genomics and Biotechnology at the European Union (2003-2006). In 2005 she has received the Marisa Bellisario Prize and the Chiara D’Onofrio Price for her research activities. In 2006 she received from the President of the Italian Republic the honor of “Cavaliere Ufficiale” of the Italian Republic. In 2007 she has been member and Vice-President of the National Bioethics Committee. In 2008 she was awarded with Unamsi (http://www.medicinaunamsi.it) and Novartis Pharma Prize “Grande Ippocrate”. Since 2009 she coordinates the European Union (FP7) funded project NeuroStemcell (www.neurostemcell.org)
