Roberto Di Gesù, PhD
Principal Investigator in Ingegneria del tessuto muscolo-scheletrico
rdigesu@fondazionerimed.com
Dr. Roberto Di Gesù is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Musculo-Skeletal Tissue Engineering unit at Fondazione Ri.MED (Palermo, Italy), one of the excellence of biotechnology in Italy born from an international partnership between the Italian Government, the Region of Sicily, the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Italy), the Mediterranean Institute for Transplantations and Advanced Therapies (ISMETT-IRCCS), the University of Pittsburgh (PITT, USA), and the University of Pittsburgh Medical center (UPMC, USA).
Dr. Di Gesù received his MS degree in Pharmacy at the University of Palermo and obtained his PhD in drug delivery and tissue engineering from the same university, jointly with the National Research Council (CNR-ISMN) of Palermo. Later, Dr. Di Gesù was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the National Research Council (CNR-IPCB) of Catania, where he worked for two years developing a polymeric smart drug delivery system for intravitreal release of steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of posterior segment eye disease. After this experience, Dr. Di Gesù moved from academy to industry, joining Merck’s research and development biotechnology laboratories as a senior scientist, and being involved in the structural and functional analysis of recombinant antibodies under evaluation in phase III cancer clinical trials. The project, which was conducted in close collaboration with Pfizer, led to Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approval and commercialization in the US of the drug Bavencio® (avelumab). Despite the relevant achievement obtained, Dr. Di Gesù decided to go back to academia to join the group of Prof. Focarete at the Alma mater studiorum in Bologna (UniBo) as a senior postdoctoral fellow. There, he led a research group of two doctoral students and four master thesis students, working at the development of a composite electrospun nanofibrous scaffold for differential release of bioactive molecules against central nervous system diseases. After this experience, Dr. Di Gesù was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship by the Ri.MED Foundation and joined Prof. Rocky Tuan’s laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, working on the development of ex vivo models of musculoskeletal disorders and on 3D culture of native/engineered cells and tissues, under the supervision of Prof. Gottardi. Then, Dr. Di Gesù moved to Philadelphia (PA, USA), following Prof. Gottardi with the set-up of his bioengineering and biomaterials laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) jointly with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). Here, Dr. Di Gesù continued to specialize in musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. Finally, in 2019, Dr. Di Gesù moved back to Palermo as the Principal Investigator in Musculo-Skeletal Tissue Engineering.