The cell therapy laboratory “Stefano Verri” for the development of cell therapies in hemato-oncology and regenerative medicine, was inaugurated in Monza in 2003 and dedicated to the young Stefano after his lost battle against cancer.

Leukemias nowadays are the most frequent tumors in children, while malignant lymphomas are in third position after brain tumors.

Unfortunately, currently available treatments (chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation) fail to cure about 20% of patients. In addition, these therapeutic practices produce considerable acute and long-term toxicity.

For a long time in the Cell Therapy Laboratory Stefano Verri, led by its Director Dr Ettore Biagi, has been developing alternative curative therapies for these subjects, based on the use of cells intended as drugs in collaboration with other centres within European projects.

The “Stefano Verri” Cell and Gene Therapy Research Centre and Laboratory “Stefano Verri” is one of the few laboratories accredited at Italian level by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) for the sterile production of “cell therapy products” for pharmacological use.

The Center is active with protocols already approved by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) that involve the use of immune cells manipulated so that they acquire elective specificity against infectious agents frequently involved in causing post-transplantation mortality. Other protocols instead aim at the development of specific immune cell populations for the control of post-transplantation leukemia relapses. In this context, a European collaborative project is still underway that will provide, according to cutting-edge technologies, the creation of “engineered” T lymphocytes for the specific recognition of lymphoblastic leukemia cells.

The Centre also operates using additional protocols for the treatment of degenerative heart and bone diseases.

In this context, BioRep has proposed itself as a European and non-European support for the transport and monitoring of transplantable donor material to the recipient. The shipment is organized and managed by dedicated couriers appropriately selected able to operate in GXP with the use of special equipment able to maintain the temperature.

The “Stefano Verri” Cell and Gene Therapy Laboratory “Stefano Verri” aims to become a real Stem Cell Factory, where the production of cells-pharmaceutical is large enough to allow the use of other Italian centers, without the necessary tools to provide for themselves, keeping costs affordable, just for the maintenance of the structure and the payment of living costs of production.