Associate Professor
University of Ferrara, Italy
GAIA COLOMBO, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Ferrara (Italy).
In 2001 she graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at University of Parma (Italy), after 8-month research internship at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of South Paris XI (F). In 2002-04 she was granted of a PhD scholarship from University of Parma, allowing her 18 month appointment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) in prof. Robert Langer’s group, where she worked on delivery systems for prolonged local anesthesia. She got “Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics” PhD degree from Parma University in 2005.
Since April 2016 she is permanently appointed as Associate Professor by the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Dept., University of Ferrara (I). In 2016-21 she was Deputy Rector of Internationalization. She supervised >100 Master theses as well as 3 Ph.D. students.
Her research mainly focuses on transmucosal (nasal, buccal), respiratory and oral drug delivery. In 2008-10 she participated in a project funded by CARISBO Foundation on nose-to-brain delivery of antivirals in veterinary viral encephalitis. She was PI of a project “FIRB 2010” funded by Italian Ministry of Research, University and Education.
She published 77 papers, as well as 5 patents and 8 book chapters. She gave invited lectures at several academic and non academic institutions in Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Turkey, Australia. In 2006 she founded the “AAPS Italian University Network Student Chapter”, the first European chapter of AAPS, serving as Chair in 2006-07. She collaborates as qualified expert with the Italian Agency for Medicines (AIFA) for the evaluation of the Quality section of CTDs. She serves as Associate Editor for Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy and is member of the Editorial Board of journals in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy category.
In 2018 she received the EUFEPS 2018 Women in Pharmaceutical Sciences Award.