Thanks to the Career Development Award, neuroscientist Gabriele Ciceri will establish a new laboratory at the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy.
The scientific autumn begins with positive news: neurobiologist Gabriele Ciceri, recipient of the prestigious Career Development Award (CDA) from the Giovanni Armenise Harvard Foundation, will lead a new laboratory at the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget) in Milan, supported by a $1 million grant. His research will focus on studying neuronal cells and the mechanisms underlying their full maturation - a process that, in the human brain, may take many years.
Ciceri’s academic path began in Italy and continued in Spain, at the CSIC-UMH Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, and in the United States, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he investigated the prolonged development of human neuronal cells and advanced new stem cell-based technologies. In this new career chapter, he is Head of the Armenise Harvard Laboratory of Stem Cells & Timing of Neural Development in Heath and Disease at SR-Tiget - a joint venture between Fondazione Telethon and the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele - to tackle a challenge that is as demanding as it is ambitious.
One of the main objectives of Ciceri’s research will be the development of an innovative stem cell-based platform to study the mechanisms underlying neurological diseases and to identify potential therapeutic strategies. This work will build on the consolidated expertise of SR-Tiget and IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in gene and cell therapy for genetic diseases and cancer.
"Understanding the mechanisms that regulate the maturation timing of different neuronal types and brain regions could shed light on how altered developmental trajectories contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, potentially even contributing to their prevention and treatment"
Gabriele Ciceri
“We still know very little about the maturation of the human brain, except that it proceeds more slowly than in most other species. Moreover, not all neuronal cells and brain regions mature at the same pace: some do so quickly, while others require many years or even decades to achieve full functionality. This coordination of the development of different brain areas is crucial, as it allows neuronal cells to interact at the right time and cooperate effectively, ensuring that the brain is precisely built to acquire specialized functions. In my laboratory, we will seek to reproduce this process starting from stem cells and engineer them to modulate their maturation timing. It is an extremely complex challenge: so far, no one has succeeded in bringing human neuronal cells to full adult maturity in vitro,” explains Gabriele Ciceri, winner of the Armenise-Harvard CDA.
“Understanding the mechanisms - including epigenetic ones - that regulate the maturation timing of different neuronal types and brain regions represents a significant knowledge gap. Filling this gap could shed light on how altered developmental trajectories contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders, which affect the growing brain, and neurodegenerative diseases, which appear in adulthood – potentially even contributing to their prevention and treatment. I am honoured to receive this prestigious award from the Armenise Harvard Foundation, which enables me to embrace this new challenge with enthusiasm.”
“We are very pleased to welcome Gabriele Ciceri to San Raffaele, an important step both for him and for our scientific community,” comments Professor Gianvito Martino, Scientific Director of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele and Vice-Rector for Research and Third Mission at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. “His research, focused on the biology of brain stem cells, investigates one of the most fascinating and least understood aspects of biology, while also providing a critical foundation for translational medicine - a field in which we are among the international leaders, bridging discoveries from the lab to innovative therapies. We are confident that Gabriele, within the multidisciplinary and innovative environment of our Institute, will help strengthen San Raffaele’s mission: transforming knowledge into concrete therapeutic opportunities for patients.”
“The arrival of Gabriele Ciceri represents a strategic milestone for our Institute,” adds Professor Luigi Naldini, Director of SR-Tiget and Full Professor of Histology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. “We aim to open new research lines on brain development mechanisms and the genetic alterations that impair them, using innovative in vitro models of early development and advanced technologies to map the spatiotemporal dynamics of gene expression across cell populations. Our ultimate goal is to uncover the molecular mechanisms that cause disease and lay the groundwork for future therapeutic interventions.”
Finally, Elisabetta Vitali, Executive Director of the Giovanni Armenise Harvard Foundation, concludes: “We are delighted to welcome Gabriele, who now joins more than 30 winners of our Career Development Award. In over twenty years, through this merit-based programme, we have supported the return of high-calibre scientists to Italy, who continue to demonstrate the excellence of Italian science on the international stage.”
