Mauro Ferrari

Mauro Ferrari (born 7 July 1959) is a nanoscientist and leader in the field of nanomedicine. He served as special expert on nanotechnology for the National Cancer Institute (2003-2005) and was instrumental in establishing the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer in 2004.
On 1 January 2020, Ferrari was made president of the European Research Council (ERC). Following a vote of no confidence, on 27 March 2020, "all 19 active members of the ERC’s Scientific Council individually and unanimously requested that Mauro Ferrari resign from his position as ERC’s President", due to poor conduct in office, exploiting the position to further his own projects, and for consistently failing to represent the interests of the ERC. On 7 April 2020, Ferrari officially resigned, stating to the media that he was "extremely disappointed by the European response” to the pandemic and expressing frustration over opposition to his efforts to launch a scientific program to combat the virus.
Early life and education
Ferrari was born in Padova, Italy in 1959. He spent his early years in Udine and Florence before attending the University of Padova and earning his Laurea in Mathematics in 1985. He moved to Berkeley, California where he earned his master's and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley.
Career
Professor of Engineering
Ferrari became an associate professor of engineering at Berkeley, then moved to the Ohio State University as professor of bioengineering, internal medicine, and mechanical engineering.
He studied medicine at the Ohio State University concurrent with his faculty appointment from 2002-2004.
Cancer research
He moved to the MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX to become the chair of the department of nanomedicine and biomedical engineering, and then in 2010 accepted the position of president and CEO of the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Houston, TX.
Ferrari was appointed as Chief Commercialization Officer of Houston Methodist in 2018, and retired in 2019.
ERC President (2020)
In 2019, the European Commission appointed Ferrari as the next President of the European Research Council (ERC), succeeding Jean-Pierre Bourguignon; he was selected by a search committee chaired by Mario Monti. He took the post on 1 January 2020.
Ferrari resigned in 7 April 2020, citing his disappointment at the lack of coordinated EU action to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Ferrari was not alone in his criticism of the EU response to COVID-19. The ERC countered that calling for specific research was contrary to their mandate. According to Science Magazine, "ERC, set up to reward bottom-up basic research ideas, does not designate money for specific research areas....Other EU organ[ization]s can and do pay for research in particular fields, including COVID-19, but ERC is designed to protect science from politics. Ferrari writes that 'the expected burden of death, suffering, societal transformation, and economic devastation' of the pandemic justifies breaking this rule."
The ERC responded on 8 April 2020: "...we regret Professor Ferrari's statement, which at best is economical with the truth." The ERC stated that Ferrari's "resignation in fact followed a written unanimous vote of no confidence”. They cited "a complete lack of appreciation for the raison-d’être of the ERC", "a lack of engagement with the ERC", with Ferrari "failing to participate in many important meetings, spending extensive time in the USA and failing to defend the ERC’s programme and mission," making "several personal initiatives within the Commission" without consulting the ERC, and being "involved in multiple external enterprises, some academic and some commercial, which took a lot of his time and effort and appeared on several occasions to take precedence over his commitment to ERC." Ferrari disputed the ERC claims of his failing to meet his obligations and their accusations of inappropriate outside involvements. In the months following Ferrari's resignation, the EU itself debated whether some funding of the ERC should include some focused research on COVID-19; which is what Ferrari advocated and the ERC adamantly opposed.
Other activities
Corporate boards
AMBER, Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Member of the Board of Directors (2010–present)
Dead Sea Research Institute, President of the int'l board of governors
Leonardo Biosystems, Member of the Board of Directors
NanoMedical Systems, Member of the Board of Directors
Non-profit organizations
Member of the Engineering Leadership Board, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston
Research interests
Ferrari's research uses nanotechnology, microtechnology, physical sciences, mathematics, biomechanics, and material sciences to develop new technologies for health care applications like drug delivery and cancer therapeutics. He leads a physical sciences in oncology center, one of a network of centers sponsored by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Center. The research of this center focuses on understanding the physical and biomechanical biological barriers that reduce the efficacy of cancer therapeutics. He developed a new drug called iNPG-pDox, composed of silicon nanoparticles loaded with polymeric doxorubicin, that had better results at lower doses in animal models compared to standard doxorubicin chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer.
Published works
Ferrari has produced more than 350 publications, including seven books and 41 issued patents in the US and Europe. In June 2020, Ferrari and his lab colleagues had a publication retracted from Science Advances Journal due to various image duplications suggesting possible scientific misconduct.
Books
Ferrari M, Granik VT, Imam A, Nadeau J, editors. Advances in Doublet Mechanics. Lecture Notes in Physics, New Series M: Monographs, vol. m 45. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer Verlag; 1997.
Ferrari M. Micro- and Nanofabricated Electro-Optical Mechanical Systems for Biomedical and Environmental Applications. SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering; 1999 Jan.
Lee A, Lee J, Ferrari M, editors. BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Vol I: Biological and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Springer. 2006.
Ozkan M, Heller M, Ferrari M, editors. BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Vol II: Micro/Nanotechnologies for Genomics and Proteomics. Springer. 2006.
Desai T, Bhatia SN, Ferrari M, editors. BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Vol III: Therapeutic Micro/Nanotechnologies. Springer. 2006.
Bashir R, Werely S, Ferrari M, editors. BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Vol IV: Biomolecular Sensing, Processing, and Analysis. Springer. 2006.
Cristini V, Ferrari M, Decuzzi P, editors. Nanoparticulate Delivery to Cancerous Lesions: Advances in Mathematical Modeling. Ferrari M, series editor. Fundamental Biomedical Technologies. Vol. 2. Springer. April 2010.
Journal articles
Patents
Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions
2008 Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
2009 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2011 Founders Award, Controlled Release Society
2015 Aurel Stodola Medal, Mechanical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Personal life
Ferrari met and married his first wife Marialuisa while they were both students at the University of Padova, and they moved to Berkeley, California. While he was faculty at the University of California Berkeley, Marialuisa died from cancer.
Ferrari married Paola Del Zotto from Udine, Italy in 1995. He has five children, including two sets of twins.
References
1959 births
Living people
Scientists from Padua
Cornell University faculty
University of California, Berkeley alumni
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy