The recognition that rewards the best European scientists under 40, the Embo Young Investigators Award, goes to an Italian: And Luke Tiberi, of the University of Trento, where he works on the development of drafts of organs and organoids, on which to reproduce diseases and test new drugs. It was since 2016 that no Italian entered the prestigious list of the best scientists under 40, notes the university. “This award demonstrates that even in Italy with adequate funding high-level objectives can be achieved” observes Tiberi, who works at the Armenise Harvard Laboratory of Brain Disorders and Cancer of the University of Trento and is a professor at the Cibio Department of the University.
Luca Tiberi: “public funding”
«Unfortunately – he adds – most of the funding we have received comes from private donations: Armenise Harvard Foundation, Airc and Caritro. I think that, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of our basic research at European levels, we must first of all also think of public funding commensurate with the importance of the role of research. Secondly, we need to give a new impetus to patronage, in which the public contribution is complemented by private capital incentivized by preferential taxation».
Awarded for his organoids
The prize will allow Tiberi and his group to enhance the studies on organoids. In particular, the researcher deals with brain organoids, thanks to which he discovered an important mechanism at the origin of medulloblastoma, the most common brain tumor in childhood and also present in adults. After graduating in medical biotechnology at the University of Bologna and a PhD in molecular oncology at the University of Trieste, Tiberi moved to Brussels, where he stayed for almost eight years, specializing in the technology underlying the development of brain organoids . In 2016 he won the Career Development Award of the Armenise Harvard Foundation, thanks to which he returned to Italy, establishing the Armenise Harvard Laboratory of Brain Disorders and Cancer. In 2018 Tiberi was awarded the My First Airc Grant, from the Airc Foundation for Cancer Research, and in 2019 the funding from the Caritro Foundation.