Marco Peviani

Marco Peviani is currently an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Neuropsycopharmacology at University of Pavia (Italy) and affiliate faculty at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, USA). Dr Peviani’s research activity lies in the fields of pharmacology and molecular neurobiology, with over 15 years of experience in the study of neurodegenerative diseases; in particular, neuropathologic and molecular investigations and neuromotor assessments in animal models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), spinal cord injury and Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis.

He obtained a degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Milan (Italy) and a PhD in Life and Biomolecular Sciences from Open University (UK). He performed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr Bendotti, a leading expert in ALS field, at “Mario Negri” Institute in Milan (Italy), where he acquired expertise in procedures for delivery of pharmacological tools to the Central Nervous System and he developed and applied viral vector-mediated approaches to dissect molecular pathways crucially involved in neuronal degeneration or survival in ALS. As post-doctoral trainee at the University of Pavia, under the mentorship of neuro-pharmacologist Dr Curti, he contributed to validate Sigma-1 receptor as therapeutic target for ALS and other neurodegenerative and neurological disorders.

Since 2014, as senior post-doc at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, and then as Instructor at Harvard Medical School (Gene Therapy Program, Dana Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Boston, USA), he worked in Dr Biffi’s group, on the pre-clinical validation of new hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy approaches for Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (CLN1). Here he developed great interest for biocompatible nanomaterials as innovative tools for cell-specific drug and gene-delivery. In 2019, Dr Peviani joined the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Pavia (Italy) to pursue an independent career path. His work is focused on: i) the application of single-cell RNAseq and cytofluorimetric functional analyses in rodent models of neurodegenerative diseases to identify new cell- and stage-specific targets of therapy; ii) development of new gene/drug delivery tools based on cell-targeted nanovectors; iii) development and validation of new non-invasive imaging modalities (based on MRI and PET) to track the progression of the disease and/or the biodistribution of therapeutics in vivo.