Developed skills and lines of research

Luigi Maiuri passed away prematurely in 2019.

Luigi Maiuri graduated in Medicine and Surgery in Rome in 1977 and became a pediatric specialist in 1980. In November 2017, he was appointed Director of the University Complex Structure of Pediatrics at the Novara University Hospital and an Associate Professor at both the University of Foggia and the University of Eastern Piedmont.
Since 2007, he had served as the Scientific Director of the European Institute for Research in Cystic Fibrosis (IERFC Onlus) at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.
His research focused on understanding disease mechanisms and their modulation. In autoimmune diseases, he was the first to identify the role of innate immune response and IL‐15 in celiac disease (Lancet, 2003) and implemented murine models of autoimmune thyroiditis (Nature Medicine, 2004).
In cellular biology, he studied the role of defective autophagy in cystic fibrosis (Nature Cell Biology, 2010) and demonstrated that a combination of proteostasis regulators could restore autophagy and partially correct CFTR defects. He contributed to several FFC Ricerca – funded projects related to these topics.
More recently, he translated preclinical findings on proteostasis regulators into two pilot clinical trials, which confirmed partial recovery of CFTR function and improvement in lung inflammation in CF patients.
His initial interest in pediatric gastroenterology and the immune mechanisms underlying celiac disease recently led him to investigate potential involvement of the CFTR protein in celiac disease pathogenesis.
His H-index was 42, with over 10,000 citations for his publications.

Projects financed by FFC Ricerca as a partner

FFC#10/2018
Dissecting the mechanism of action of the TG2 inhibitor cysteamine on Cystic Fibrosis

FFC#8/2015
Dissecting the role of TG2 in cystic fibrosis pathogenesis: identification of possible novel therapeutic targets

FFC#15/2012
The Heme-oxygenase 1 (HO-1) as modulator of Cystic Fibrosis lung disease