Diana Boraschi
Distinguished Professor / Center Director
Dr. Diana Boraschi is the director of the Laboratory of Inflammation and Vaccines at SIAT-CAS and Distinguish Professor of Department of Pharmacology at SIAT-University. She is the senior member of National Research Council of Italy, member of Accademia Dei Fisiocritici, member of Top Italian Scientists Club and member of Top Italian Women Scientists Club. She was the acting director and research director of Institute of Protein Biochemistry of the National Research Council of Italy.
Dr. Diana Boraschi is an immunologist that built her experience both in academic institutions and industrial settings. She has served as Director of Fellowships at the Human Frontier Science Program Organization in Strasbourg, France, and as external expert evaluator for the research programmes (FP5, FP6, FP7, H2020, EDCTP) of the EU Commission, the Singapore National Medical Council, and the US National Science Foundation. She is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research articles in immunology (h-index 58), editor/author of 21 books, and inventor in eight patents, in addition to numerous monographic and divulging publications.
Dr. Diana Boraschi studies the mechanisms of innate defence responses, focussing in particular on the role of macrophages and inflammatory cytokines in the effector phase of defence reactions against infections and tumours, and in vaccination adjuvanticity and safety. Her main interests are the receptors of the IL-1R family and their cytokine ligands (IL-1 and IL-18). A fragment of IL-1 endowed with immunostimulatory activity is now defined as the “Boraschi loop”. She is currently studying the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of diseases (from autoimmune syndromes to degenerative diseases such as ALS, and ageing), with particular emphasis on abnormalities in the activation of monocytes and macrophages and on the role of innate memory in modulating their activities. Within the study of the initiating mechanisms causing chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, she has recently addressed the possible impact of engineered nanoparticles, and of their interaction with microbial derived factors, in initiating or modulating pathology-related inflammation. She has initiated the “Immunosafety Task Force” within the NanoSafety Cluster (an initiative sponsored by the EU Commission), a focus group aiming at defining and standardising the immunosafety assessment as central part of nanosafety regulations.