Napoleone Ferrara (born 26 July 1956 in

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

) is an Italian-American molecular biologist who joined

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California, San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National Cancer Institute T ...

in 2013 after a career in Northern California at the biotechnology giant

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

, where he pioneered the development of new treatments for

angiogenic Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature mainly by processes of sprouting and s ...

diseases such as cancer, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and

diabetic retinopathy Diabetic retinopathy (also known as diabetic eye disease) is a medical condition in which damage occurs to the retina due to diabetes. It is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries and one of the lead causes of sight loss in the wor ...

. At Genentech, he discovered

VEGF Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, ), originally known as vascular permeability factor (VPF), is a signal protein produced by many cells that stimulates the formation of blood vessels. To be specific, VEGF is a sub-family of growth factors ...

—and made the first anti-VEGF antibody—which suppresses growth of a variety of tumors. These findings helped lead to development of the first clinically available

angiogenesis inhibitor An angiogenesis inhibitor is a substance that inhibits the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). Some angiogenesis inhibitors are endogenous and a normal part of the body's control and others are obtained exogenously through pharmaceutical ...

bevacizumab Bevacizumab, sold under the brand name Avastin among others, is a monoclonal antibody medication used to treat a number of types of cancers and a specific eye disease. For cancer, it is given by slow injection into a vein (intravenous) and use ...

(Avastin), which prevents the growth of new blood vessels into a solid tumor and which has become part of standard treatment for a variety of cancers. Ferrara's work led also to the development of ranibizumab (

Lucentis Ranibizumab, sold under the brand name Lucentis among others, is a monoclonal antibody fragment (Fab) created from the same parent mouse antibody as bevacizumab. It is an anti-angiogenic that is approved to treat the "wet" type of age-related ...

), a drug that is highly effective at preventing vision loss in intraocular neovascular disorders.

Education

Ferrara received his medical degree from the

University of Catania The University of Catania () is a university located in Catania, Sicily. Founded in 1434, it is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy, and the 29th oldest in the world. With over 38,000 enrolled students, it is the largest uni ...

, Italy, in 1981, and joined Genentech in 1988. He did his postdoctoral research at

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

Current research

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center The Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center is the region's only NCI-designated Cancer Center, part of UC San Diego Health and affiliated with the University of California, San Diego. It is supported, in part, by the National Cancer Institute. His ...

, Ferrara, a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

since 2006, serves as Senior Deputy Director for Basic Science and is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology in the

UC San Diego School of Medicine The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It wa ...

, where he will continue cancer drug research targeting angiogenesis. He is presently focusing on investigating mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis alternative to VEGF, in particular the role of factors produced by myeloid cells and fibroblasts in mediating resistance to VEGF inhibitors.

Selected honors and awards

For his VEGF discovery, he won a

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

in 2010. In 2013, he was awarded the $3 million

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a scientific award, funded by internet entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of t ...

for his work. He has received numerous other awards, including the General Motors Cancer Research Award (2006), the ASCO Science of Oncology Award (2007), the Pezcoller Foundation/AACR International Award (2009), the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research (2011), and

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

's Innovation Award for bioscience in 2012.

Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande The Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande (Scientific Grand Prize of the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation) is an award conferred annually by the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation at the Institut de France The ; ) is a French le ...

in 2005. In September 2014, Ferrara was awarded the António Champalimaud Vision Award, awarded by the

Champalimaud Foundation The Champalimaud Foundation MHM () is a private biomedical research foundation. It was created according to the will of the late entrepreneur António de Sommer Champalimaud, in 2004. The complete name of the foundation honors the mother and f ...

. 2023,

Keio Medical Science Prize The Keio Medical Science Prize ( Japanese: 慶應医学賞) is a Japanese prize in medical sciences. Introduction The prize is awarded to scientists who made significant contributions to the field of medical sciences or life sciences. And these c ...

.第28回（2023年）受賞者
/ref>

References

1956 births Living people Italian molecular biologists Genentech people University of California, San Diego faculty Winners of The Economist innovation awards Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award University of California, San Francisco alumni Scientists from Sicily Members of the National Academy of Medicine {{italy-biologist-stub