Isabella Saggio

Isabella Saggio is Full Professor of Genetics at Sapienza University of Rome (uniroma1.it). She obtained her PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology in 1993 working between IRBM-Merck labs and Sapienza University, after graduating with honors in Genetics at Sapienza. She is fluent in Italian, English, French, and German. She spent her postdoc in France, and, from 2017 to 2023, she has been a Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is currently an Associate Researcher of the Italian National Research Council (CNR.it) and board member of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC.it). Isabella Saggio passes 3/3 criteria of the national top evaluation for academic Italian competition (h index; number of publications and citations; asn.it).

Her research focuses on aging, genomic instability, and telomere biology. She has developed novel viral vectors for gene therapy of differentiated and stem cells and has contributed to research on rare genetic diseases such as progeria and fibrous dysplasia. She explores these areas focusing on the theoretical aspects of the fields and also expanding into a one health trans-disciplinary perspective. She has secured several major research grants, including, in the most recent years, coordination of a National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) project for the National Biodiversity Future Center (€4.1 million) and an AIRC grant on telomere stability and lymphomagenesis (€432,000).

Professor Saggio has extensive teaching, academic and extra-academic coordination experience. She delivers courses in Genetics, Gene Therapy, and Neuroscience at Sapienza University. She coordinates the PhD program in Genetics and Molecular Biology and is a member of the National PhD program in Biodiversity. She is registered with the National Order of Journalists and, in 2024, founded the One Health Master’s program at the Sapienza School for Advanced Studies, where she serves as Senior Fellow. Since 2006, she has directed the Master’s program in Science Journalism and, since 2022, she has been Editor-in-Chief of “Sapienza STAR Magazine,” dedicated to the dissemination of scientific culture.

She authors more than 70 international peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributions to academic books focusing on Genetics. Alongside her scientific and academic activity, Isabella Saggio develops initiatives in the field of science communication and the relationship between research and society. She founded and directs the university science communication magazine STAR and is curator of the exhibition In Praise of Diversity, presented in both national (Rome, Brescia) and international contexts (Boston, Osaka). Her editorial activity included the curation and publication of volumes such as One Health. Thinking the Emergencies of the Planet (Il Saggiatore), In Praise of Diversity (Sillabe), Global Health (Carocci), and Aging, If It Exists (Il Mulino). These activities are complemented by the production of outreach content through media, podcasts (Futuro Presente, Il Post), vodcasts (One Planet, One Health – Stories and Science for a Global Balance, OnePodcast–Repubblica), and numerous public events. These initiatives fall within the university’s third mission along with her role played in the board of the National Biodiversity Future Center and are aimed at promoting scientific culture and fostering dialogue with society.