Gian Maria Rossolini, MD, is Professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology at the University of Siena Medical School and Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Virology Unit of Siena University Hospital.
He has served as Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Siena, and is currently serving as Chairman of the Steering Committee of the University of Siena Medical School.
Professor Rossolini is an Editor for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and member of the Editorial Board for several internatoinal journals in the field of Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. He has acted as reviewer/advisor on behalf of International and Foreign Institutions (USA, Canada, Israel, Spain) for selection of research grants and academic professorships.
Has authored 205 scientific papers and is inventor in several patent applications related to diagnostics, antimicrobial agents, or genetic vectors. His current research interests are mostly focussed on antimicrobial agents and antibiotic resistance, and microbial biotechnology.

With 150 publications and 20 patents to his credit, Dr. Giovanni Gaviraghi has a wealth of experience in Pharmaceutical Research and Development. He is C.E.O of Siena Biotech, that he built up starting from its very beginning in 2001. Before joining Siena Biotech, he spent more than 20 years in Glaxo, Verona, Italy where he set up Research Centre housing about 700 researchers which is still one of the Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery within GSK. He held a number of responsibilities beside the R&D Directorship of the Research Centre, at the international level as a member of the Glaxo Management Team of the R&D global organisation and at local level as Member of the Board of the Italian Company. In this context, he was also involved in supporting the commercial operations, linking research and development activities to marketing and sales department. His areas of research and development include: central nervous system diseases (stroke, pain, and depression), infectious diseases (betalactams, quinolones, macrolides) and cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, arteriosclerosis and cardiac ischemia). He was involved in the identification and progression through development of numerous NCE (e.g. NMDA antagonist for the treatment of stroke, new betalactams such as trinems) and in the identification, development, launch and marketing of Lacidipine, a potent calcium once daily channel blocker for the treatment of hypertension. Before joining Glaxo he held the positions of Head of Lab at ISF a medium size Pharmaceutical Company, Milan, and of Lecturer at Polytechnic of Milan. He is graduated in Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Medicine, and in May 2009 received a Laurea Ad Honorem in Pharmacy from The University of Siena.