Dr. Maurizio Federico

Maurizio Federico started his scientific career in the Virology Laboratory at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy, headed by Prof. G.B. Rossi. He spent the first 5 years studying the antiviral/differentiation effects of interferon, as well as different molecular aspects of the erythroleukemia differentiation. Afterwards, as part of the Virology laboratory of the Italian Ministry of Health, he actively contributed to the isolation and characterization of HIV-1 isolates circulating in Italy. In this context, he decisively participated to the first molecular cloning and sequencing of an HIV-1 isolate from an Italian patient. In the late 1990s, he became leader of a scientific team focused on HIV basic research at the Virology Department of the ISS. Recently, he developed both basic and translational investigations on exosomes and extracellular vesicles, with the goal to understand their role in HIV-1 pathogenesis. In addition, these activities represented a starting point for the implementation of an original platform for the production of CTL vaccines against infectious diseases (included SARS-CoV-2) and tumors based on the unique molecular characteristics of an HIV-1 Nef mutant. At present, he acts as the Director of the National Center for Global Health at ISS.