Arturo Falaschi (21 January 1933,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

– 1 June 2010,

Montopoli in Val d'Arno Montopoli in Val d'Arno is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pisa in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence and about east of Pisa. Montopoli in Val d'Arno borders the following municipalities: Castelfranco ...

) was an Italian geneticist.

Biography

He graduated in Medicine in 1957 from

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

and undertook two post doctoral studies. Firstly, with J. Adler and

Har Gobind Khorana Har Gobind Khorana (9 January 1922 – 9 November 2011) was an Indian-American biochemist. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, USA (1961 to 1962), and later with

Arthur Kornberg Arthur Kornberg (March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for the discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic a ...

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

(1962 to 1965). His main field of research was the replication of DNA. He was Professor of Molecular Biology at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

(1966 to 1979); Director of the Instituto di Genetica Biochimica ed Evoluzionistica, CNR,

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

(1970 to 1987); and Director of the Progetto Finalizzato "Ingegneria Genetica" of the Italian National Research Council (1982 to 1989). He taught

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

at the

(1966 to 1979) and remained Director of Graduate School of Genetics, University of Pavia (1979 to 1984). He was coordinator of the Graduate School of Molecular Genetics, International School of Advanced Studies (

SISSA The International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: ''Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati''; SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education and research institute in Trieste, Italy. SISSA is active in th ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

(1988 to 2001) and Professor of Molecular Biology,

Scuola Normale Superiore The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

(SNS),

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, Italy from 2004 to his last breath. He researched mainly in the field of

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all life, living organisms, acting as the most essential part of heredity, biolog ...

and in the last decades of his life he searched in particular the

origin of replication The origin of replication (also called the replication origin) is a particular sequence in a genome at which replication is initiated. Propagation of the genetic material between generations requires timely and accurate duplication of DNA by semi ...

of human DNA, discovering the first documented origin (Lamin B2 Origin). As science administrator, he was responsible for the establishment of several research institutes and was a strong believer in the internationalization of science and an advocate of North-South collaboration. He was very articulate and convinced several governments in the developed and the developing world to establish a 2-component International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, with one component in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and one in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

; both devoted to research and training of young researchers from the developing world. He became the first head of the Trieste Component of ICGEB (1987 to 1989) and then Director General of both components (1989 to 2004). In the pursuit of his desire to promote

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

and its applications in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, he became the Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Molecular Biology Network (2006 to 2009) and then Senior Counselor (2009-to date). He had profound influence on the work plan of A-IMBN and played a key role in the success of this organization.

Honors

* Premio Scanno per l'innovazione tecnologica in 1982 and 1992. *Vice-president of 'Comitato nazionale per le biotecnologie del Ministero per la ricerca scientifica e tecnologica' (since 1985) *Member of the European science and technology assembly of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(since 1994), *Member o
Academia Europaea
since 1997 *Member of the ''

Academy of Sciences for the Developing World The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 100 countries. Its principal aim is t ...

'' since 1997 *Member of the board of CNR since 1999 *President of the Council of scientists of ''Human Frontier Science Programme'', since 1999. *Gold Medal (Medaglia d'oro) and first class diploma (diploma di prima classe) of the Benemeriti della scienza e della cultura of the Italian Republic President, in 1998

Honors ''in memoriam''

Arturo Falaschi Hall in the Conservatorio Santa Chiara, San Miniato, PisaArturo Falaschi Hall at IGM Pavia

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120614163708/http://www.icgeb.org/fellowships.html The Arturo Falaschi Fellowship Programme a programme of fellowship initiated by and subsequently dedicated to the memory of professor Arturo Falaschi
The Arturo Falaschi Conference Series on Molecular Medicine
A series of conferences on Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy initiated by and subsequently entitled to the memory of prof. Arturo Falaschi.

Publications

*''Struttura e sintesi del DNA'', Piccin, Padova, 1980
The quest for a human ori

Genetica
,1994;94(2-3):255-66. *''DNA. Storia di una scoperta'', Editoriale Scienza, 1995
Start sites of bidirectional DNA synthesis at the human lamin B2 origin

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

2000 Mar 17;287(5460):2023-6.

External links

biography in italian
personal page in English at ICGEB
obituary on UNIDO websiteobituary on Asia-Pacific Molecular Biology Network WebsiteItalian Republic President message of griefArticle
on

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

about his human and scientific stature *

Claudio Magris Claudio Magris (; born 10 April 1939) is an Italian scholar, translator and writer. He was a senator for Friuli-Venezia Giulia from 1994 to 1996. Life Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been ...

''Abbiamo ancora bisogno di scienziati umanisti''

of 1 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Falaschi, Arturo Italian geneticists 1933 births 2010 deaths University of Milan alumni National Research Council (Italy) people Montopoli in Val d'Arno