Elena Cattaneo

She graduated (with honours) in Pharmacy in 1986 at the University of Milan and subsequently obtained her PhD in Biotechnologies Applied to Pharmacology. In 1995 she became university researcher and in 2001 associate professor at the same university.

Since December 2003 she has been full professor at the University of Milan, where she has taught several courses, including Stem Cells in Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine and Pharmacological Biotechnologies. Due to incompatibility of offices, since the 2013/2014 academic year she no longer holds courses but gives seminars within courses run by colleagues. She worked for three years as a postdoc in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, M.I.T. (USA), in Professor Ronald McKay’s laboratory, where she began studies on the differentiation of neural stem cells in the striatum, a brain region implicated in the pathophysiology of several neurodegenerative diseases. She spent a short period at Lund University, in Professor Anders Bjorklund’s laboratory, learning experimental techniques of intracerebral stem cell transplantation.

Back in Italy, she continued her studies on cerebral stem cells, focusing on Huntington’s disease. She is director of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Pharmacology of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Department of Biosciences (www.cattaneolab.it) and co-founder and director of UniStem, the Stem Cell Research Centre at the University of Milan. For more than twenty years the laboratory has studied Huntington’s disease with the goal of contributing to the understanding of pathogenic mechanisms and to the development of pharmacological, genetic and cellular strategies to interfere with the disease. The laboratory has 20 people and has its own internal management. Over the years it has received funding from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (USA), the Hereditary Disease Foundation (USA), the CHDI Foundation (USA), the European Union (through the European projects EuroStemCell, ESTOOLS, NeuroNE, STEM-HD, Stemstroke, Neuromics, Neurostemcell, Neurostemcellrepair), the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Fondazione Cariplo (Italy) and Telethon (Italy).

Elena Cattaneo was coordinator of the European project Neurostemcell (2008-2013). She currently coordinates a new European consortium — Neurostemcellrepair (2013-2017) — and an Italian network on stem cell research in Huntington’s funded by the Ministry of University and Research (2013-2016). Occasionally the University receives donations from Huntington families earmarked for disease research carried out in the Cattaneo laboratory.

She has given more than 400 seminars as a speaker at congresses or invited seminars at various research institutes and universities. She has supervised more than 100 PhD and experimental master’s theses, and is active in organising outreach and training events aimed at the scientific community and the wider public.

Funding

First grants: European Science Foundation (Twinning grant for collaborative research, 1991); NATO-Collaborative Research Grant (1992); Research grant from the Hereditary Disease Foundation (USA, 1993); Alzheimer’s Association (USA, 1994); Telethon (Italy, 1995).

In the last 5 years she has been: 2004-2008 PI and Networking Director in Eurostemcell (Integrated Project, EU, FP6); 2006-2010 PI in Estools (Integrated Project, EU, FP6); 2004-2009 PI in NeuroNE (NoE, EU, FP6); 2007-2009 PI in STEM-HD (STREP, EU, FP6); 2005-2009 Coordinator of an International Coalition for the study of huntingtin function (Huntington’s Disease Society of America, USA; Huntingtin Function Team); 2004-2006 Coordinator of an international project to identify Huntington biomarkers (HighQ Foundation, USA); 2006-2009 Telethon (Italy) project winner for the study of huntingtin function; 2007-2009 Coordinator of the Cariplo-Nobel project “A genetic toolkit for the analysis of neural stem cells”, Fondazione Cariplo, Italy; 2008-2012 PI in EuroSyStem (EU, FP7); 2008-2013 PI and Coordinator of NeuroStemcell (EU, FP7); 2012-2014 PI of a CHDI Foundation (USA) project on in vivo cholesterol dysfunction in Huntington’s; 2012-2016 PI in Neuromics (EU, FP7); 2012-2015 PI of the Joint Steering Committee Grant with the CHDI Foundation (NY) for the development of in vitro differentiation protocols; 2012-2014 PI of a Telethon (Italy) project on the mechanism underlying cholesterol dysfunction in Huntington’s; 2013-2015 Coordinator of a PRIN project (Italy) on stem cells in Huntington’s; 2013-2017 PI and Coordinator of NeuroStemcellrepair (EU, FP7) on the differentiation and integration of stem cells in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.

Awards

• 2001 Le Scienze Prize for Medicine
• 2001 Gold Medal of the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, for studies on Huntington’s chorea and stem cells
• 2005 Marisa Bellisario Prize (Italy)
• 2005 Chiara D’Onofrio Prize (Italy)
• 2008 “Grande Ippocrate Researcher of the Year 2008” Award in science communication, established by Unamsi and Novartis Farma (Milan)
• 2012 Civic Merit Award of Milan “Ambrogino d’Oro”
• 2012 “Luigi Tartufari” Prize for Molecular Biology and Genetics (Accademia dei Lincei, Rome)
• 2013 EMBO Member
• 2013 Member of the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome
• 2014 Public Service Award, International Society for Stem Cell Research ISSCR (USA)
• 2015 “Il Caduceo d’Oro” Prize, Bari
• 2015 National Gentile da Fabriano Award, 19th edition
• 2015 Assobiotech Award 2015
• 2015 School of Advanced Studies Award, Camerino

Appointments

• 2000-2001 Member of the Senate of the University of Milan
• 2002-2006 Member of the Italian Delegation for Genomics and Biotechnologies at the European Community (FP6) on behalf of the Ministry of Research
• 2006 Cavaliere Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana
• 2006 Member of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain
• 2007 Member and Vice-President of the National Bioethics Committee — resigned in 2008
• 2007 Member of the national committee for the selection of the President of the CNR
• 2008 Member of the national committee for the Rientro Cervelli programme
• 2008 Member of the ISSCR Committee “Clinical Translation of Stem Cell Research”, USA
• 2009 Member of the ISSCR Committee “Unproven Stem Cell Therapies”, USA
• 2012 Member of the ISSCR Legislative Educational Initiative Committee, USA
• 2013 Member of the Committee for the selection of the Directors of CNR Institutes, Rome
• 2013 Member of the national committee for the selection of the Director of the Anton Dohrn Zoology Institute, MIUR, Rome
• 2013 Senator for life of the Italian Republic, appointed by President Giorgio Napolitano, Rome

Plenary conference presentations: 2004 American Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, USA; 2007 Keystone Symposia “Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration”, USA; 2008 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) meeting, Geneva; 2009 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Barcelona; 2009 Conference in honour of Rita Levi-Montalcini’s 100th birthday; 2009 World Congress on Huntington’s Disease, Vancouver; 2010 Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF), Turin, Italy; 2013 ISSCR, Boston; 2014 FENS meeting, Milan.

Outreach and science communication

She has organised numerous local and international scientific events aimed at the scientific community, the public and national institutions. Since 2003 she has been co-organiser of the international congress “Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration”, held in Milan every two or three years. She co-organised the first series of international conferences Advances in Stem Cell Research (2005 Milan, followed by 2006 Lausanne, 2007 Stockholm, with 500 scientists from around the world).

She organises the science outreach events of UniStem, including the Study Days, the UniStem Lectures and the UniStem Day dedicated to high-school students. Since 2013 UniStem Day has become an international event involving more than 50 Italian and foreign universities with over 20,000 high-school students.

She is active nationally with commentary on science-society relations, writing occasionally for Il Sole 24 Ore, Nature and EMBO. Contributions include:

• Cattaneo, “Science, dogmas and the state”, 2008 Nature, 456, 444-5
• Cattaneo E., Garagna S., Cerbai E., “Italy’s stem cell challenge gaining momentum”, Nature, 463, p. 729, 2010
• She took part in the theatre performance “Staminalia: a dream and a trial”, based on Armando Massarenti’s book “Staminalia” (Nature 465, p. 1012, 2010)
• Cattaneo E. & Corbellini G., “Science under politics, an Italian nightmare” 2011, EMBO Reports, 12, 19-22
• Cattaneo, interview on “Science and politics”, 2011, EMBO Reports, 12, 23-26
• Bianco P, Barker R, Brüstle O, Cattaneo E et al. “Regulation of stem cell therapies under attack in Europe: for whom the bell tolls.” EMBO Journal 2013, 32, 1489-95
• Bianco P., Cattaneo E., De Luca M., Pani L., “Stamina therapies: Let the record stand” 2014, Nature, 506:434
• Cattaneo E. and Corbellini G., “Stem cells: taking a stand against pseudoscience” 2014, Nature, 510, 333-335

Publications

She has published more than 160 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals (including Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience, JBC). Her H-index is 47. A selection of the most significant publications since 2000 is available on the lab’s website.