Valeria Pagano is the Animal Welfare Officer of the Ri.MED Foundation since 2008. She is also the designated veterinarian and the head of the Animal Welfare Body at IRCCS ISMETT Preclinical Research Laboratory. Valeria has received her MS degree in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Naples in 2000, and has obtained her PhD in “Animal Anesthesia and Pain Management” at the Biotechnology Center of the Cardarelli hospital in Naples. At Cardarelli, she was also a Deputy Head of Animal Welfare, a member of CESA (Ethics Committee for Animal Experimentation), and a tutor of the surgery and microsurgery training course (2001-2003). From 2005 to 2007, she was involved in the management of the IZS Sicily animal facility, and obtaining ministerial authorizations. In 2006, she specialized in “Animal Reproductive Physiopathology”. From 2007 to 2008, she was a Veterinary Research fellow at the Regenerative Medicine and Cellular Therapies Unit of ISMETT. During this experience, she had the opportunity to be trained on heterotopic heart transplantation in the rat, at UPMC, Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, under the supervision of Dr. Noriko Murase. In 2008, she obtained a Master in Science and Technology of Laboratory Animals (University of Naples), and, later, in 2011, she became a specialist in Science and Medicine of Laboratory Animals. More recently, in 2023, she obtained a second-level master degree in “Protection of animals used for scientific purposes” at the University of Messina, Department of Veterinary Medicine. Valeria was involved in the design and development of a multicentre and interdisciplinary cross-company Institute for preclinical research and molecular imaging (Istituto di Sperimentazione Preclinica e Molecular Imaging or ISPEMI), and also, of the animal facility at the future Ri.MED’s Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (BRBC) in Carini (Palermo). For two terms, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of AISAL (Italian Association of Animal Science Laboratory), and in December 2023, she was elected member of the CO (Organizing Committee), a body created by the CNPA (National Committee for the Protection of Wildlife animals used for scientific purposes), to develop a guide on how to coordinate all AWBs.