Andrea Crisanti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Senate | |
| Assumed office 13 October 2022 | |
| Constituency | Overseas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-09-14)14 September 1954 (age 71) Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 Guilio Crisanti |
| Alma mater | |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral students | Flaminia Catteruccia |
| Website | www |
Andrea Crisanti (born 14 September 1954) is an Italian full professor of microbiology at theUniversity of Padua and politician. He previously was professor of MolecularParasitology atImperial College London. He is best known for the development of genetically manipulatedmosquitoes with the objective to interfere with either their reproductive rate or the capability to transmit diseases such asmalaria.[1]
Crisanti earned his Master of Medicine and Surgery degree in Italy atSapienza University of Rome.[2] Crisanti served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) at theUniversity of Heidelberg. In 1994, Crisanti became a lecturer at Imperial College, before being appointed Professor in 2000. He is also the director of the Centre of Functional Genomics at theUniversity of Perugia.[2] He is an author of over 100 scientific publications in leading scientific journals, includingProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,The EMBO Journal,Cell,Science andNature.
At Imperial College London, Crisanti has established the technologies to eliminate the human malaria vectorAnopheles gambiae. Crisanti's work exploits the biological properties of a class of selfish genetic elements (homing endonuclease) to develop agene transfer technology. Using such technology, Crisanti has developed genetically manipulated mosquitoes producing a male-only progeny. In the future, further refinements of the technology may lead to the development of vector control tools based on the release of just a few genetically modified mosquitoes. Via natural breeding, the genes can effectively spread to large field mosquito populations, reducing malaria-spreading mosquito numbers in the wild and ultimately decreasing malaria incidence.[3][4] In 2018, Crisanti and colleagues demonstrated thatCRISPR/Cas9 can be programmed to attack a conserved region of the sex determination gene,doublesex, which impairs female mosquito development and could spread effectively to 100% of a population in a few generations.[5] This study represents the first time that researchers have been able to block the reproductive capacity of a complex organism in the laboratory using designer molecular approaches.[6]
In 2011, Crisanti was appointed editor-in-chief of medical journalAnnals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, which in 2012 under Crisanti's leadership becamePathogens and Global Health, reflecting the journal's newly formed broader focus.[7] Crisanti is a chairman of the scientific panel of the EU Marie Curie Programme, I-Move, and has advised on issues concerning the safety of genetically modified insects for the Consilium Pontificium of theVatican City[8] and theEuropean Food Safety Authority.[9]
In March 2020 during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Crisanti conducted analysis of citizens inVò and found that most of the infected people wereasymptomatic carriers; without symptoms but capable of spreading theCOVID-19 virus.[10][11] Crisanti's research, which was published inNature,[12] was strongly supported by aBMJ editorial which appeared on 1 July.[13] Crisanti is highly critical of theWorld Health Organization. His throat swab test methodology was complete on 25 January (the date is an error) and amongst the first in the world. Crisanti demanded and obtained the co-operation of thePresident of Veneto,Luca Zaia, in the teeth of opposition by the WHO, which had co-opted the administration ofGiuseppe Conte.[citation needed] In neighbouringLombardy the death toll exceeded 16,800 while in Veneto it was minimal. In the opinion of Crisanti,[citation needed]
the WHO guidelines were completely wrong, an incredible example of incoherence... Their bureaucrats were far away from the problem and far away from the science. I think whatDonald Trump did [moving to pull United States out of WHO] is one of the few things he's done that I can agree with.
Andrea Crisanti is married to Nicoletta and has a son, Giulio; he considers himself Roman Catholic.[14]
asymptomatic or quasi-symptomatic subjects represent a good 70% of all virus-infected people and, still worse, an unknown, yet impossible to ignore portion of them can transmit the virus to others
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
