Orthopaedic Surgeon
IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy, Italy
He was graduated at the School of Medicine of Bologna, Italy in 1983. Then finished the Residency Program in Orthopaedic directed by Prof. Mario Campanacci at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in 1988. During this period he was involved in Orthopaedic Oncologic Surgery with a particular interest in reconstructive surgery of the limbs.
He has been working on grafts and bone transplants since 1986 after having attended as a research fellow the Harvard Medical School in Boston at Massachussets General Hospital tutored by Prof. Henry Mankin al Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota tutored by Prof. Franklin Sim. In 1989 was appointed as assistant professor in Orthopaedics starting his clinical employment with Prof. Mario Campanacci. Then he was recognized as professor in 2012. During this period he has been teaching at the School of Medicine giving lectures and seminars, following doctoral thesis and teaching in the residency program. In 1999 he started his own research activity on tissue engineering setting up the Bone Regeneration Laboratory in Rizzoli promoting many preclinical and basic research projects on bone and cartilage regeneration. Several clinical applications followed the laboratory and animal tests regarding the treatment of bone cyst, fracture delayed union and bone necrosis. From this experience he was able to proposed the first cell based medicinal product in orthopaedics in 2007 on the safety and effectiveness of mesenchymal stem cells implant for the treatment of bone defects, approved by the Italian medicinal authority. To now he followed more then 200 research projects at Italian and European level.
He is the organizer of two International course at Rizzoli Institute on Musculoskeletal pathology and Custom solution for Severe bone and joint defects. He wrote more than 400 papers, abstracts, and book chapters. (Total IF 8.900; H- index 52)