CV Science

Matteo Bovolenta PhD Medical Genetics

Course and current status

April 2003 - March 2005

Undergraduate studies at the Human Anatomy Laboratory of the University of Ferrara, headed by Prof. S. Capitani. During this period, I started working with cellular biology as well as biochemistry and microbiology techniques. My main area of interest were gene delivery and protein expression. I learned to use Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting instrumentation for the cell cycle and phenotype analysis. 

March 2005 - March 2006

Research fellowship granted by the Bank of Ferrara at the Dep. of Experimental Medicine and Diagnostic Section of Medical Genetics of the University of Ferrara. My main project was about the identification of cys/trans factors able to modulate the phenotype in patients with beta-thalassemia. The main techniques of interest have been linkage analysis, sequencing and Real-time PCR.

April 2006 - June 2009

Telethon Foundation Research fellowship at the Dep. of Experimental Medicine and Diagnostic Section of Medical Genetics of the University of Ferrara, on the project “Definition of the dystrophin gene transcriptome and modulation of mutations by antisense oligonucleotides-induced targeted exon skipping”. In-vitro splicing and Microarray design and validation for both CGH and Gene expression were my main fields.

I have also worked to design CGH microarrays for the detection of mutations in patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Collagen VI myopathies and Multiple Sclerosis.  

January 2006- December 2009

Medical Genetics PhD studentship at the Second University of Naples with Professor V. Nigro.

July 2009 – June 2010

Temporary research associate at the Dep. of Experimental Medicine and Diagnostic Section of Medical Genetics of the University of Ferrara, within the Telethon project “Toward a mitochondrial therapy of collagen VI muscular dystrophies” with duties of gene expression profiles of collagen VI KO mice. I have acquired basic skills of Bioinformatics (Perl).

April 2010 – March 2011

Research grant to Matteo Bovolenta from the Association “Amici di Edy Onlus” for the project “Restoration of DMD gene duplications by a Zinc-Finger Nucleases approach”.

July 2010 – September 2012

Temporary research associate at the Dep. of Experimental Medicine and Diagnostic Section of Medical Genetics of the University of Ferrara, within the EU FP7 projects “Identifying and validating pre-clinical biomarkers for diagnostics and therapeutics of Neuromuscular Disorders” (BIO-NMD project) and “High throughput molecular diagnostics in individual patients for genetic diseases with heterogeneous clinical presentation” (NMD-CHIP). In these projects, I have been responsible for the high-throughput microarray platforms and Next Generation Sequencing projects on Illumina platforms.

October 2012 – September 2017

Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology at the Dep. of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the University of Ferrara, for a 3+2 years fixed-term position.

March 2017 – Present

Researcher and Marie Curie Fellow at Genethon, for the project “Correction of duplications in the DMD gene by a CRISPR/Cas9 approach”.

Scientific summary

Dr Matteo Bovolenta is a biotechnologist with specific skills in array design and therapeutic and diagnostic genomic studies technical innovation. He is now Researcher and Marie Curie Fellow within the group of Isabelle Richard at Genethon, Evry (France). He has worked within two Telethon and two EU FP7 funded projects. He published several papers with a particular focus about diagnosis and therapy of neuromuscular disorders and won prizes at both national and international meetings. In 2011 was nominated “Young Innovator of the Year” by Technology Review Italy. In 2012 Dr. Bovolenta has been selected for a five-years fixed term position as Assistant Professor at the Dep. of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the University of Ferrara. In 2014 won the Early Career Investigation Award by Bayer and the Trampoline Grant of the AFM-Téléthon. In 2016 Dr. Bovolenta has been awarded with the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship.