Simone Bersini

Simone Bersini studied Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) where he graduated in 2010. From 2011 to 2014 he carried out his PhD work at Politecnico di Milano on the design of microscale and macroscale in vitro models of human breast cancer metastases to bone with a particular focus on the process of cancer cell extravasation from the microcirculation. During his PhD he spent visiting periods at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Prof. RD Kamm lab) and at the BioSystems and Micromechanics Group (National University of Singapore) where he combined computational modeling and experimental tools to biofabricate microphysiological models of vascular networks. After a visiting period in the Khademhosseini Lab (Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology) he moved to Prof. Martin Hetzer’s lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he combined his bioengineering background with advanced molecular biology techniques to analyze the mechanisms of vascular aging in the context of human physiology and disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome).

Simone Bersini joined Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale in 2020 and he received the Assistant Professor title from the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of USI in 2023. He was awarded and ERC Starting Grant (transferred to Switzerland) in 2023 for the study of blood vessel aging through a combination of microphysiological systems, omic analyses and machine-learning. This research line has been further consolidated and expanded through other funding from the Novartis Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.