Ilaria Decimo

Ilaria graduated in Biotechnology at the University of Milan. During her studies, she carried out a thesis on developmental genetics at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany. Ilaria then obtained a PhD in Biotechnology Applied to Biomedical Sciences at the University of Verona, working in the field of neuroscience. Thanks to a Marie Curie fellowship from the European Union, Ilaria worked for 4 years in Leuven (Belgium) at the Flamish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), where she carried out extensive research on neurodegenerative diseases, neural stem cells, cellular metabolism, and angiogenesis. Following this experience, she returned to Italy at the Pharmacology section of the Department of Diagnostics and Public Health of the University of Verona, where she directs her own research group, involved in numerous national and international projects, and is Associate Professor of Pharmacology. Her main research activities focus on the development of new therapies for the regeneration of the central nervous system, including cell therapy, the use of new pharmacological targets, such as cellular metabolism, and the development of three-dimensional brain cell cultures called “mini -brain”. For more than ten years Ilaria has been collaborating with Patient Associations for the preclinical development of new therapies for the treatment of spinal cord lesions. Highly motivated to carry out competitive scientific research, Ilaria is recognized by her peers as a brilliant, resourceful, and tenacious scientist, with a great ability to handle different aspects of scientific research, from laboratory experiments to managerial aspects. Very attracted by multidisciplinarity, Ilaria has a documented experience of collaborating with professionals from different disciplines – clinicians, engineers, IT specialists, philosophers – to realize cutting-edge and successful projects.