Gianni Ciofani (born in La Spezia, Italy, on August 14th, 1982) is Senior Researcher Tenured at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology, IIT), where he is Principal Investigator of the Smart Bio-Interfaces Research Line and Coordinator of the Center for Materials Interfaces (Pontedera, Italy).
He received his Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering (with honors) from the University of Pisa, Italy, in July 2006, and, in the same year, his Diploma in Engineering (with honors) from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, Italy. In January 2010, he obtained his Ph.D. in Innovative Technologies (with honors) from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He thereafter joined the IIT, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, as Post-Doctoral Fellow from January 2010 to August 2013, and then as Researcher from September 2013 to October 2015. From October 2015 to October 2019 he was Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Torino (Torino, Italy), maintaining at the same time his research activity in IIT, where he is Senior Research Tenured since November 2019. In 2021, he was appointed Coordinator of the Center for Materials Interfaces; in the same year, he got a position as Visiting Professor at Waseda University, Tokyo (Japan).
His main research interests are in the field of smart nanomaterials for nanomedicine, in vitro models, and biology in altered gravity conditions. He is coordinator or unit leader of several projects (about 4.5 MEur granted); in particular, he was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant and an ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Gianni Ciofani is author of about 160 papers on international journals (H-index 39, excluding self-citations), 3 edited books, and 16 book chapters, and delivered about 50 invited talks/lectures in international contexts. He serves as Reviewer for about 200 international journals, and as Editorial Board Member of Nanomedicine UK, Scientific Reports, International Journal of Nanomedicine, Journal of Physics: Materials, and Bioactive Materials; he is Specialty Chief Editor (Nanobiotechnology) for Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.