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Mario Gimona
Head of Manufacturing
Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg
Salzburg, Salzburg
Austria
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Mario Gimona received his PhD in Genetics and Cell Biology in 1990 from the University of Salzburg and spent his postdoctoral period at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. His early scientific work focused on the molecular bases of actin cytoskeleton dynamics in tissue transmigration. From 1996-2008 he has led research labs in Austria and Italy, and received a Marie Curie Excellence Award by the European Union in 2004. Since 2012 he heads the GMP stem cell and EV manufacturing unit at PMU and leads a team of researchers investigating the potential of MSC-derived EVs and CDVs in regenerative medicine for application in tendon regeneration and acute spinal cord injury, and for the reduction of scar formation following implant-induced injury. From 2018-2020 he served as co-founder, CSO and CEO of the biotechnology company Celericon Therapeutics. In 2019 he tailored an EU Project termed EV-TT for novel methods in manufacturing and analytics of EVs derived from diverse sources, and coined the unique term of Theralytics (therapy-related analytics). The project focuses on those technological advances, which specifically address elements that are missing but required to fulfil the scientific and regulatory demands for the translation of EV-based therapeutics and drug delivery systems into clinical application. Recently, a first-in-human application of human umbilical cord MSC-derived EVs was completed successfully, and preparation for a phase 1 clinical trial are ongoing. Mario also organized more than 10 international research conferences, is co-founded 2 scientific societies (the Protein Modules Consortium and the Invadosome Consortium) and co-authored over 100 publications.