Elena Cattaneo
| Senator for life Elena Cattaneo OMRI |
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|---|---|
Elena Cattaneo in 2015
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| Born |
22 October 1962 Milan, Italy |
| Alma mater | University of Milan |
| Spouse | Enzo Rivolta |
Elena Cattaneo, OMRI (born 22 October 1962) is an Italian pharmacologist and co-founding director of the University of Milan's Center for Stem Cell Research.
Since 2013 she has been a Senator for life in the Italian Parliament.
Cattaneo was born in Milan. After graduating (summa cum laude) in pharmacy in 1986, she moved to Boston in the United States for a few years, where she specialized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studied neural stem cell differentiation in the area of the human brain associated with degenerative diseases under Professor Ronald McKay. Another of her mentors was Professor Anders Björklund of the University of Lund. Cattanaeo spent a short time with him in Sweden learning grafting techniques that could be used on stem cells. Returning to Italy she started her academic career in the University of Milan. She lived in Brugherio and worked in Milan.
Cattaneo was appointed to the Senate of Italy as a Senator for life, the youngest in Italian history, by then President Giorgio Napolitano on 30 August 2013, along with Claudio Abbado, Renzo Piano and Carlo Rubbia. Her appointment was made in appreciation, and to encourage others, of a career in Science.
Cattaneo has used her position to oppose unfounded claims made by companies offering stem cell remedies. The scientifically unsupported claims were primarily being made by a private well-connected company called the Stamina Foundation which had been started in 2009. The Stamina therapy involved recommending stem cells for a range of conditions with little or no scientific proof of their efficacy. Journalists including prestigious employees of the journal Nature were lied to and threatened. The scientific community's consensus was against Stamina. Stamina took advantage of the well meaning supporters of very ill people who believed that Stamina's claims was their only hope.
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