Following last week’s story of a “super surgeon” who may leave Italy because of his frustration with its bureaucratic processes, it is a pleasure to be able to write about a brilliant young doctor who is returning to Italy from the USA.
Doctor Matteo Iannacone will take up his research post at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in October and he will come with a two million euros research grant from the Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation, which works to support multi-disciplinary scientific research at the Harvard Medical School and at foremost institutions in Italy.
Dr Iannacone says that viruses fascinate him because, though smaller than cells, they have a very sophisticated attack system. Some, he explains, live in our bodies without causing us any trouble and even help the body’s immune system to stay alert. Dr Iannacone’s research has focussed on finding out how a virus which begins with, for example, a seemingly trivial insect bite reaches the brain. Using new technology such as the multiphoton intravital microscope, his team were able to track viruses and observe their interaction with cells as it happened.
In Italy he intends to carry this research forward and extend it to research on viral hepatitis with a view to creating new vaccines and treatments for the condition. At the San Raffaele he will be able to set up his own laboratory, the Immune Cells Dynamics Lab, and he intends to use part of his grant to create a top-level team. Italy, he says, does not lack the talent – only, sometimes, the funding.
Italy Magazine wishes Dr Iannacone and his team well.
