Napoleone Ferrara

Napoleone Ferrara ( born July 26, 1956 in Catania, Italy) is an Italian- American angiogenesis researchers at the biotechnology company Genentech in San Francisco, California.

Life

Ferrara completed in 1981 his studies in medicine at the University of Catania in Catania, Italy with an MD from. At the university hospital, he worked from 1981 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, before becoming in 1983 a research assistant at the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California changed. 1985/1986 he worked in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon, before he became a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, went. Since 1988, Ferrara worked as a researcher in the Department of Molecular Oncology at the biotechnology company Genentech in San Francisco.

Work

At Genentech Ferrara should first deal with the effect of relaxin on the reproductive system. However, he was also allowed, in addition to pursuing their own research goals. Ferrara was interested in the thesis Judah Folkman that cancer can be fought through the inhibition of angiogenesis.

Ferrara's research on the regulatory mechanisms of angiogenesis resulted in 1989 for the isolation and cloning of vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF). Understanding its molecular and biological properties has enabled the development of ranibizumab (trade name Lucentis ) and bevacizumab (trade name Avastin), the first anti -angiogenesis agents that (from 2004) in the United States received approval from the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA). These monoclonal antibodies significant improvements in the treatment of wet macular degeneration, colorectal cancer and non - small cell lung cancer could be achieved in the subsequent period.

Recent work Ferrara deal with the Endocrine Gland Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor ( EG-VEGF ), a VEGF, which acts only in tissues of the endocrine system.

Awards (selection)

Portland (Oregon) Gairdner Foundation International Award Digital Object Identifier
592341
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