Alia People

Mariacarmela Allocca

Senior R&D advisor

Mariacarmela holds a Master’s Degree in Medical Biotechnology and a PhD in Molecular Medicine from University of Naples Federico II, in Italy.
She has 20 years of experience in gene therapy and gene editing drug development and has led the advancement of multiple preclinical projects. She is an author of several publications in the gene therapy and gene editing field and is an inventor on patents related to genome editing approach to treat ophthalmic disease.

Matteo Bello

PhD Student

Matteo is a PhD student with a background in Molecular Biotechnology. He graduated from the University of Trento with a thesis focused on improving Homology Directed Repair following CRISPR mediated double strand break by exploiting long non-coding RNAs; in the following 18 months he kept working on his thesis’ project. In 2022, Matteo won a position as PhD student at Alia Therapeutics where he started working on the Retinitis Pigmentosa project.

Sally Bertolini

Lab Manager

Sally received the Master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Trento in 2018. During her academic journey, she completed an internship at Novagenit Srl in collaboration with CIBIO, focusing on the development of a tissue engineering strategy for articular cartilage regeneration. She later spent two years as R&D lab technician at Mirnagreen Srl, specializing in plant microRNAs purification. Since 2021 she has been the Lab Manager at Alia Therapeutics, where she is actively involved in nucleases evolution project.

Maddalena Bosetti

Laboratory Technician

Maddalena graduated in Functional Genomics from the University of Trieste and in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Rennes in 2022, following a double degree program. She did an internship of 4 months in the Laboratory of Genomic Screening at CIBIO and then she joined Alia Therapeutics in April 2023. She is currently working as laboratory technician of the company, a role that engages her in different projects.

Antonio Carusillo

Scientist

Antonio Carusillo has obtained his Ph.D. Summa Cum Laude from the University Hospital of Freiburg (UKF), Germany. There at the Center for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy (ITG) he investigated and developed new CRISPR-effectors with improved integration efficiency. Later, as Scientist at Vector Biopharma (Basel, Switzerland) he became well versed in the latest implantations of CRISPR, including Prime Editing and Epigenome Editing. Currently at Alia Therapeutics he is working on applying a novel CRISPR portfolio in the context of CAR-T cell immunotherapy and other ex-vivo clinical indications. Outside of the lab, he is one of the co-organizers of the CRISPR Medicine conference, taking place in Copenhagen.
 

Antonio Casini

Founder, CTO

Antonio studied Biology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and obtained his PhD in Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Trento. His research focuses on the development of CRISPR tools for their application in gene therapy. He is author of publications on CRISPR-based genome editing in high impact journals, among which Nature Biotechnology and Nature Communications. He is also inventor of various patents related to genome editing technologies. Antonio is among the founders of Alia Therapeutics, which was launched to exploit CRISPR technologies he helped to co-develop and bring them to the clinic.

Letizia Goretti

CEO

Letizia Goretti is the CEO of Alia Therapeutics. With over 25 years of international experience, Letizia has a broad background of contributions in the life sciences sector. Before joining Alia, she was Senior Director at Johnson & Johnson Innovation in London, leading strategic initiatives in genomics and diseases interception such as UK Biobank Whole Genome Sequencing Consortium and Our Future Health. At Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Belgium, she played key roles in new products launches, in the HCV and HIV franchises and managing the mature brands portfolio, serving millions of patients.

Inês Macieira Moreira

PhD student

Inês is a PhD student at Alia Therapeutics. Her project focuses on developing CRISPR/Cas technologies for gene therapies, aiming to create safer and more effective treatments for genetic diseases. She is also a doctoral candidate in the MSCA Doctoral Network GET-IN. Before joining Alia, she worked as a research technician at iBET, where she gained experience in bioprocess development, viral vector production, and protein engineering through collaborations with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. She holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry for Health and is passionate about translating scientific innovation into therapeutic solutions to improve patient outcomes.

Laura Pezzè

Senior Scientist

Laura is a Senior Scientist at Alia Therapeutics. She studied Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Trento where she then obtained the PhD in Biomolecular Sciences. Her PhD work focused on cancer biology, particularly on the molecular mechanisms of chemoresistance and cancer stem cells biology. After completing her PhD, Laura joined Alia Therapeutics, working on genome editing technologies and their applications to Inherited Retinal Dystrophies treatment. She authored several publications and is inventor of various patents related to CRISPR technologies.

Veronica Pinamonti

Scientist

Veronica obtained a Master of Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology in 2018 from the University of Trento. Later that year, she joined BioMed X Institute, a research company based in Heidelberg, working on a platform technology to identify antigens recognized by T-cells. She was enrolled at HBIGS program from the University of Heidelberg and defended her PhD thesis on antigen presentation in June 2022.  She spent one year as post-doc at IEO (Milano), working on CRISPR-based genome editing tools.  She joined Alia’s team in September 2023.

Paola Maria Salandin

Executive Assistant Office Manager

EA & OM and Senior administrative assistant with experience in HR, Corporate tasks, H&S and Privacy aspects.

She has extensive experience in engineering and life sciences sectors.

Franka Witthauer

PhD student

Following her bachelor’s degree in biology, Franka Witthauer joined the master’s program of Integrated Immunology at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Within the course of that master program, she carried out a 3-months internship at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, where she contributed to a project investigating regulatory mechanisms involved in the differentiation of γδ T cells. Subsequently, she performed her master’s thesis in the lab of Dr. Michaela Petter. Here, she studied the molecular function of the bromodomain protein PfBDP1 in the malaria parasite P. falciparum, in both asexual parasites and gametocytes. In June 2024, Franka joined Alia Therapeutics as a PhD student as part of the MSCA consortium Immerge.

Francesca Zagari

Senior Project Manager

Francesca is Senior Project Manager at Alia Therapeutics. Francesca holds a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Milan and a PhD in Biotechnology and Bioengineering from the EPFL (Lausanne). She has more than 10-year experience as project manager in large and small pharma companies, both in Italy and abroad, with a particular focus in drug and process development, tech transfer and CMC.