Napoleone Ferrara, MD

Napoleone Ferrara, M.D., is currently Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology and Pharmacology at University of California San Diego. He is also the Hildyard Endowed Chair in Eye Disease. His main research interests are the biology of angiogenesis and its regulators. In 1989 he reported the isolation and cloning of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and subsequently focused his research on the investigation of the molecular and biological properties of VEGF. These studies established VEGF as a key regulator of normal and pathological angiogenesis and represented the first direct evidence that inhibition of angiogenesis can block tumor growth and led to the development of a humanized anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody (bevacizumab) as a cancer therapy. The discovery that VEGF is a key mediator of angiogenesis associated with intraocular neovascular syndromes resulted in the clinical development of a humanized anti-VEGF Fab (ranibizumab), which has been approved for therapy of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other ocular vascular disorders. Ranibizumab and other anti-VEGF agents represent the first effective therapy for such blinding disorders and rank among the most widely used drugs in older adults.

Dr. Ferrara received his M.D. from University of Catania Medical School followed by postdoctoral fellowship at University of California San Francisco. He is a member of the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine. He has received numerous scientific awards including the Macula Society Awards, Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the António Champalimaud Vision Award and the Keio Medical Sciences Prize.