Recent News from the IFCC Executive Board
Nomination of Professor Maurizio Ferrari as
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Maurizio Ferrari, M.D., is Full Professor of Clinical Pathology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Director of Clinical Molecular Biology and Cytogenetics Laboratory (from 1997), and Head of Genomic Unit for the Diagnosis of Human Pathologies, Center for Translational Genomics and Bioinformatics, IRCCS San Raffaele, Milan, Italy (from 1988).
He received his Degree in Medicine and Surgery with full marks at the Milano University in 1974, Specialization in Pediatrics at the Milan University in 1977, Specialization in Hematology at the Milan University in 1980 and Specialization in Medical Genetics at the Catania University in 1991. He was Post-doc at Hospital Paul Brousse, Villejuif,Paris in 1975 and Honorary Registrar in Haematology at University College Hospital, London in 1979. He served as Assistant at the Laboratory of Clinical Research, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Milan (1975-1987), then as Vice-Director of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Chief of Molecular Diagnosis Laboratory and Prenatal Diagnosis Service, IRCCS H. San Raffaele, Milan(1988-1997). He was Scientific Coordinator of Clinical Research, IRCCS H San Raffaele, Milan (1996-1999), and Chairman of Committee on Clinical Molecular Biology Curriculum (C-CMBC) of IFCC (2002-2007).
He was member of the Education and Management Division (EMD) of IFCC (from 2008), member of IFCC Task Force on Pharmacogenetics (IFCC TF-PG, 2008), advisor of CLSI Committee on Molecular Methods, and National partner of European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN). He was Co-President of the International IFCC-WordLab Congress (Firenze 1999) and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the 1st International Congress of Clinical Molecular Biology (CMB) (Firenze 1999).
He received in 2004 the IFCC-Abbott Award for significant contributions in molecular diagnostics.
His scientific interests are oriented mainly on molecular diagnostic methods, nucleic acid circulating in maternal plasma, molecular studies of several genetic pathologies as eye diseases, neurological diseases, cardiac arrhythmia diseases, iron metabolism and haematological diseases. He developed methods for DNA analysis as multiplex PCR and capillary electrophoresis also in a temporal thermal gradient, set up a method involving the ligase chain reaction (LCR) and developed a new method known as double-gradient DGGE (DG-DGGE) for the identification of unknown mutations. In the last 4-5 years he has focused his research activity on the detection of foetal DNA in maternal plasma for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis and for diagnostic application in the genetic and oncology field. At present his research is focused on the development of diagnostic tests with the application of microelectronic chip technology and next generation sequencing.
He is author of 774 publications: peer reviewed journals: 194, other journals: 63, book: 1, chapter's book: 45 and 471 abstracts at International and National Congress.