Biographical Notes
Dr. Maria Giovanna Francipane is a Principal Investigator in Regenerative Medicine.
Maria Giovanna received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Palermo in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and obtained a PhD in Immunopharmacology from the same university in 2010. Recipient of a postdoctoral scholarship supported by the Ri.MED Foundation, in 2011, Maria Giovanna moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. At the University of Pittsburgh, she held a position of Postdoctoral Researcher until 2015. In 2016, she was promoted to Research Associate, and in 2017, she was appointed as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and was named affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. After a decade spent in the United States, Maria Giovanna returned to Palermo, to join, in September 2020, the Ri.MED’s Regenerative Medicine and Biomedical Technologies Unit, which is located at the Mediterranean Institute for Transplantations and Advanced Therapies (IRCCS-ISMETT), pending the construction of the Ri.MED’s Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (CBRB). Maria Giovanna now leads the Regenerative Hepatobiliary Medicine group, which currently includes, in addition to her, Dr. Mattia Pasqua, as a postdoc.
Maria Giovanna has 16+ years of multidisciplinary research experience in life sciences, and has worked in the fields of oncology, stem cell biology, organogenesis and tissue engineering. A significant contribution concerns the identification of the lymph node as an in vivo vascularized tissue engineering platform for the growth of several organs including the kidneys, which has inspired an episode of the well-known television series Grey’s Anatomy.
Maria Giovanna’s scientific output counts 31 peer-reviewed publications, including original research works, literature reviews and book chapters, of which 22 are as first/last author and three have been featured on the journal cover, and which collectively have been cited 1,400+ times according to Scopus, and 2,000+ times according to Google Scholar. Maria Giovanna serves as a reviewer for 25+ international scientific journals and has reviewed 80+ articles since 2016. Lastly, Maria Giovanna has participated in numerous conferences and congresses all over the world, both as a speaker and as a judge, and has been awarded prizes for both best oral communication and best poster presented.
In addition to her experience in academia, Maria Giovanna has volunteered in an American start-up, learning regulatory aspects and procedures for starting and conducting clinical trials.
The qualifications, skills and experience of Maria Giovanna were positively evaluated for the achievement of the Italian National Scientific Qualification for the functions of second-tier university professor in Applied Biology (05/F1).
Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Services (formerly Publons)
Scientific Activities
The Hepatobiliary Regenerative Medicine group led by Maria Giovanna focuses broadly on regenerative medicine strategies for the treatment of cholangiopathies, a diverse group of diseases targeting the biliary tree. Working closely with Mattia, Maria Giovanna has begun to develop novel techniques to create surrogate bile ducts that can hopefully be translated into the clinic to support the biliary tree and allow bile flow in patients with cholangiopathies of multiple etiologies. In parallel, efforts are being directed to advancing biliary cell culture techniques and establish three-dimensional organoids for studying development and disease.