Riccardo Levato,
Associate Professor in Translational Bioengineering and Biomaterials
Riccardo Levato is Associate Professor of Translational Bioengineering and Biomaterials at the Department of Clinical Sciences (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University), and a Principal Investigator both at the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht and at the Department of Orthopedics of the University Medical Center Utrecht. His research interests focus on the development of novel biofabrication strategies and cell-instructive biomaterials to create bioprinted, lab-made tissue models and transplantable engineered grafts. Integrating expertise in engineering, materials science and stem cell biology, these efforts aim both to understand and mimic the multifaceted architectural and biochemical structure of living tissues in order to develop effective treatments for human and veterinary healthcare. In 2020 he was awarded a Starting grant from the European Research Council on the development of a novel volumetric bioprinting technology for organoid research and to engineer functional bone marrow analogues in vitro. In addition, since 2021, he is coordinator of a European consortium (ENLIGHT), funded under the Future and Emerging Technologies scheme (European Innovation Council pilot), aiming at developing biofabricated pancreas units to study treatments for diabetes. To date, he has published 52 peer-reviewed articles international journals, co-authored 2 book chapters and 2 patent applications, and he secured > 13 million euros in research funds for his group and related consortia. In total, he has been (co-)supervisor of 16 PhD students (4 completed, 9 ongoing). For his work, he was conferred several awards including a Orthoregeneration Network Fellowship by the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS), the 2016 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award, multiple presentation and travel awards, and the 2021 Jean Leray award from the European Society for Biomaterials. Riccardo is also serving on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Biofabrication. Prior to moving to Utrecht, he worked in several research groups working in the fields of Biomaterials, Regenerative Medicine and Biofabrication: 3Bs, University of Minho (Portugal); BioMatLab, Technical University of Milan (Italy), the Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC, Spain), and he holds a cum laude PhD in Biomedical Engineering from IBEC and from the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain).
|
|
