Scientific Advisors

Prof. De Maria is one of Scientific Director of the Regina Elena Cancer Institute. He formerly was Director of the Department of Hematology, Oncology and Molecular Medicine at the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità), Research Director of the Division of Oncological and Haematological Biotechnologies at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Scientific Director of the Foundation of the Mediterranean Institute of Oncology and Affiliate Full Professor at the George Mason University. Ruggero is one of the world’s most prominent experts in the biology of cancer stem cells and discovered CSCs form colon, lung, and thyroid cancers. He graduated in 1989 in Medicine at the University of Catania and specialized in 1994 in Endocrinology at the University of Palermo.

Gabriella Camboni held various positions in the pharma industry, including Clinical Project Leader at Sandoz (subsequently Novartis), Head of Clinical Oncology at Boehringer Mannheim, Head of Development for Novuspharma (now Cell Therapeutics), Head of Medical Affairs Europe for Novartis Oncology. She was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of EOS, a start-up company devoted to the development of novel oncology drugs and successfully sold to Clovis Oncology in 2013 for 400 M EUR. Gabriella obtained an MD from the University of Milan and specialized in gastroenterology and clinical pharmacology.

One of the co-founders of GENOVAC (now Aldevron Freiburg) in 1999 and Managing Director from 2004 until 2014. Since April 2014, he has been working as an independent consultant for Aldevron. Since Summer 2011, Aldevron worked together with Exiris on a joint research project to identify new diagnostic and potential therapeutic antibodies against colon carcinoma stem cells and Dr. Thompson was invited to join the scientific advisory board of Exiris in 2015. Dr. Thompson studied Zoology (BSc Hons) at University College Cardiff, UK (1969-1973). He then moved to Germany and studied Cell Biology (Diplom) at the Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg (1974-1978), followed by his doctoral thesis at the same department studying the genetic information present in plastids (1978-1982). He worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Tumour Immunology (1982-1985, 1986-1999), Universität Freiburg culminating in his “Habilitation” in 1993. Here Dr. Thompson studied and helped characterise the molecular biology of the human carcinoembryonic antigen family. During this period, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA (1985-1986). He is co-author on over 50 original article publications plus numerous review articles and oral presentations.