Laboratorio di terapia cellulare “Stefano Verri” Azienda Ospedaliera San Gerardo di Monza

The “Stefano Verri” Cell Therapy Laboratory, dedicated to the development of cell therapies in hemato-oncology and regenerative medicine, was established in Monza in 2003 and named after Stefano, a young man who lost his battle against cancer.

Today, leukemia is the most common form of cancer in children, while malignant lymphomas rank third after brain tumors.

Unfortunately, currently available treatments, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation, fail in approximately 20% of patients. In addition, these therapeutic approaches can cause significant acute and long-term toxicity.

For many years, the Stefano Verri Cell Therapy Laboratory, led by its Director, Dr. Ettore Biagi, has been working to develop alternative curative therapies for these patients, based on the use of cells as therapeutic agents, also in collaboration with other centers within European research projects.

The “Stefano Verri” Cell and Gene Therapy Research Center and Laboratory is one of the few laboratories in Italy accredited by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) for the sterile production, for therapeutic use, of “cell therapy products”.

The Center is currently operating under protocols approved by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), involving the use of manipulated immune cells designed to acquire specific activity against infectious agents frequently associated with post-transplant mortality.

Other protocols are aimed at developing specific immune cell populations for the control of leukemia relapse following bone marrow transplantation. Within this framework, a European collaborative project is also underway involving the use of advanced technologies to generate “engineered” T lymphocytes capable of specifically recognizing lymphoblastic leukemia cells.

The Center also operates additional protocols for the treatment of degenerative cardiac and bone diseases.

Within this context, BioRep provides support both in Europe and internationally for the transport and monitoring of transplantable biological material from donor to recipient. Shipments are organized and managed by carefully selected dedicated couriers able to operate in accordance with GxP requirements, using specific equipment designed to maintain the required temperature conditions.

The “Stefano Verri” Cell and Gene Therapy Laboratory aims to become a true Stem Cell Factory, where the production of cell-based medicinal products is sufficiently extensive to allow their use by other Italian centers that do not have the necessary facilities to produce them independently, while keeping costs affordable and limited to the maintenance of the facility and the direct costs of production.