Dr Andrea Banfi

Dr. Andrea Banfi graduated in Medicine (1996) and specialized in Clinical Oncology (2000) at the University of Genova (Italy), studying the biology of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and their use for bone tissue engineering in the Cancedda lab. He then joined the Blau lab at Stanford University (USA) as a postdoc, focusing on cell-based gene delivery for therapeutic angiogenesis. In 2004 he became Research Scientist at Stanford with a Career Development Award by the American Heart Association. In 2005 he moved to Basel (Switzerland), where he directs the group of Cell and Gene Therapy at the University Hospital.

The goal of his group is to promote vascular growth for tissue repair, combining expertise on mesenchymal progenitor cell biology and vascular biology. His research aims at: 1) elucidating the basic mechanisms governing the growth of blood vessels under therapeutically relevant conditions, and 2) translating these concepts into rational regenerative medicine approaches, to restore blood flow in ischemia and to regenerate vascularized tissues.
The projects, at the interface between fundamental research and clinical translation, rely on the close interaction between basic scientists and clinicians. Core competences of the group are the combination of stem cell therapy and gene therapy, to provide both vascular growth and tissue regeneration, as well as engineering of controlled microenvironments by factor decorated smart biomaterials.