On Friday the University of Brescia awarded an honorary doctorate in artificial intelligence in medicine and innovation in clinical and methodological research to Franco Locatelli, president of the Superior Health Council.
The motivations
For the rector Maurizio Tira, reads the press release from the University of Brescia, “the awarding of an honorary doctorate in artificial intelligence in medicine and innovation in clinical and methodological research realizes the desire of the University of Brescia to pay the dignified recognition to Prof. Franco Locatelli, who distinguished himself for the excellence of his work in the scientific and professional fields, in the sectors of pediatric hematology and oncology. In the management of the Covid19 pandemic, his contribution was also decisive in addressing and overcoming the serious problems generated not only in the health field, but also in the social field in general, public information, schools and last but not least, of ‘University. The very high professional profile and the authority of his work represented a solid reference, always correct, never bent to the sirens of the frenetic communication that we experienced in the terrible years of the first waves of COVID-19 ».
Who is Franco Locatelli
Franco Locatelli is the director of the department of oncology, hematology, cell therapy, gene therapies and hematopoietic transplantation of the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome and full professor of pediatrics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Since 2019, he has been president of the superior health council, with a position renewed in 2022. He was coordinator of the Technical Scientific Committee for the COVID-19 pandemic, being appointed, for the service rendered, a knight of the great cross by the president of the Italian Republic in November 2021. He leads – continues the press release – the largest allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation program in Italy and is the coordinator of numerous phase I / II and III studies on oncological and hematological pathologies of the pediatric age.
He has activated the first 2 academic studies on the use of CAR T cells in our country. He is also involved in clinical trials for the development and validation of cell therapies and gene therapy in hereditary diseases; he coordinates numerous clinical and pre-clinical experimental research projects at national and international level. Author of over 1250 publications in internationally recognized scientific journals, Professor Locatelli has an H-index of 112 according to the Scopus source.