Pier Paolo Pompa is Research Director in Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and Head&Founder of the Nanobiointeractions&Nanodiagnostics Lab. After his degree in Physics, in 2005 he took a PhD in Nanobiotechnology at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) in Lecce. PPP subsequently joined NNL as a junior researcher and, since 2008, as a staff scientist. In 2009 he moved to the Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies (CBN) of IIT, where he was first appointed Group Leader and in 2011 Director of CBN. In 2015 he moved to the Central Research Labs of IIT in Genova. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Genova (Department of Biotechnology), Member of the University Board for PhD School (Department of Chemistry), Editorial Board Member of several international journals, and Member of the Scientific Committee of several international conferences.
His scientific activities are highly interdisciplinary, ranging from nanotechnology to biophysics, nanodiagnostics, nanomedicine, and nanobiotechnology, and are intensively focused on the understanding of nano-bio interaction mechanisms, nanoparticles/nanozymes, and development of low-cost hybrid sensing strategies for point-of-care diagnostics. PPP has strong expertise in the development of POC technologies for both healthcare and food safety&genetic traceability. He has developed several innovative assays (based on isothermal amplification techniques and plasmonic/catalytic nanoparticles) for water&food safety and anticounterfeiting applications.
PPP has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications in International Journals (including Nature Nanotech, PNAS, Nature Comm, ACS Nano, Angew Chem, Adv Mater, Chem Soc Rev, with ca. 15,000 citations), several book chapters, and many invited and oral contributions to International Conferences. He is also author of >35 internationally granted Patents (EU, US, CN, JP, HK), some already licensed and developed in commercial products. PPP is strongly committed to technology transfer and has several collaborations and partnerships with industry (especially diagnostics and food) and startup companies. He led various national and international projects in the field of nanobiotechnology (>7.2 M€ of competitive grants). He is also reviewer of major scientific journals (Nature Mater, Nature Nanotech, etc.), international funding agencies (ISF, ACS, HFSP), and University Ranking agencies (e.g. Times Higher Education).