Consortium – Phire Project

The PHIRE consortium follows a multicultural and multidisciplinary approach (urology, radiology, biology, nanotechnology, chemistry and mathematical modelling), bringing together scientists with a proven track record of >400 manuscripts. It is composed of 4 EDIT partners that already established ongoing agreements, scientific protocols and networking activities, and the partner META Sprl that has proven expertise in Dissemination and Exploitation activities.

The Consortium is composed by hospital, academia and industrial researches located in Italy (San Raffaele Hospital and University of Bologna), United Kingdom (Ascend Technologies LTD), The Netherlands (Fujifilm Visualsonics) and Belgium (META Group)

Massimo Alfano

Urology

Dr. Massimo Alfano (PhD, Cellular biology) has longstanding expertise in the field of cellular and molecular biology, urology and photoacoustic imaging of bladder, and is the recipient of several national and European grants.
He is group leader at the Urology department of OSR, which brings expertise and know-how in the healthcare domain of urology and basic and translational science, existing channels to relevant adopters and leadership to involve end users, as top-urologists in high-volume hospitals.

Mauro Comes Franchini

Industrial chemistry

Prof. Mauro Come Franchini (PhD, Chemical Sciences) has extensive expertise in the functionalization of nanoparticles with complex organic biomolecules for medical application, including PAI and thermal ablation, the synthesis and characterization of GNRs, and competences to overcome one of the bottlenecks for the clinical commercialization of GNRs that is the high scale production of nanosystems.
He is Full Professor of Material Organic Chemistry at the Department of Industrial Chemistry (UNIBO), Associate Editor of the Royal Chemical Society, inventor of 20 international patents, and recipient of several national and European grants and was awarded in 2017 with the Prize for the scientific research in “Organic Chemistry for Nanoscience” by the Società Chimica Italiana.

Viktor Popov

Computational modelling and MLA

Dr. Viktor Popov (PhD, Computational Physics) has longstanding experience in Computational Physics, Sonochemistry, Acoustics, Nanotechnology, Heat Transfer, Machine Learning and development of mathematical models and numerical methods for scientific and engineering applications.
He is the founder and Head of Research & Development of AT, a research-oriented SME that provides solutions to challenging problems in engineering and science by application of mathematical models and computer simulations, which also developed the 3D model for GNRs-assisted PTT.

Jithin Jose

Diagnostic Imaging

Dr. Jithin Jose (PhD, Biomedical Photonic) has extensive knowledge in photoacoustic technology and contrast agents for PAI since 2008, and is recipient of several European grants.
He is acting as Global Market Leader, Photoacoustics at FFSS, the company world leader in ultrahigh frequency ultrasound and PAI with expertise on the fabrication of ultrasound systems and transducers. FFSS is also a wholly owned subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holding Corporation, the latter worldwide leader in the field of medical imaging.

Francesca Natali

Early-stage Finance

Mrs Francesca Natali (Master in International Business Communication), Managing Director of META Ventures (MV), is an international expert and fund manager. She has collaborated on the preparation of ex-ante assessments for financial instruments in various regions and has been engaged by the European Innovation Council as a Jury Member for the evaluation of startups and scaleups.

She is a senior expert at META Group, a leader in the exploitation of research results funded by the Framework Programmes, having supported over 1300 projects through the previous Booster SSERR (Support Services for the Exploitation of Research Results) and now with Booster, the largest service contract ever funded by the European Commission in this field. META Group has also provided services for the international scale-up of over 500 companies through InvestHorizon 2.0.