The Generative Brain

Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese

The Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences (DBSV) of the University of Insubria was set up in 2011 to put biology, biotechnology and medicine in one research department, with its seat in Varese and further sites in Busto Arsizio and San Fermo della Battaglia. For the atlas its role is narrow. An organic chemistry group in the department, around Stefano Banfi and Enrico Caruso, has made porphyrin and related photosensitiser molecules for cancer and antibacterial photodynamic work since at least 2003. That chemistry became the source of the Mario Negri anti-prion porphyrin Zn(II)-BnPyP: Banfi is one of the three holders of Telethon award GGP15225 and one of three people credited with conceiving and supervising the 2023 iScience study, and the compound was made by a route first published by the Insubria group in 2006. Caruso has stayed on later prion protein papers from the Mario Negri laboratory, in 2024 and 2025. The department publishes no prion work of its own outside that partnership.

Key facts

  • DBSV was founded in 2011 to bring biological sciences, biotechnology and medicine together and link basic with applied and laboratory with clinical research; it has two sections, biological sciences and technologies, and medical and surgical sciences.
  • The department page names Flavia Marinelli as Director and Mario Picozzi as Deputy Director, with the administrative seat in the Giulio Lanzavecchia building, Via J.H. Dunant 3, Varese, and sites in Busto Arsizio and at Sant'Anna Hospital, San Fermo della Battaglia.
  • A 2024 university press release, seen only as a search excerpt, says Marinelli took over as director from Luigi Valdatta from 31 October 2024 for three years.
  • The department's 2025 to 2027 three-year plan, approved by the department council on 8 July 2025 and seen only as a search excerpt, gives 15 full professors, 38 associate professors, 16 researchers and 29 technical and administrative staff.
  • Banfi and Caruso share 17 indexed papers with Insubria affiliations from 2003 to 2023; nearly all are about porphyrin, chlorin or BODIPY photosensitisers for cancer cells or bacteria, and the 2023 iScience porphyrin paper is the only one on prions.
  • In the 2023 iScience paper both chemists are listed at the Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Varese; Telethon Italy award GGP15225 is stated as held by Chiesa, Musco and Banfi, and the same three are credited with conceiving and supervising the project.
  • The paper says Zn(II)-BnPyP was made by benzylating the zinc tetrapyridyl porphyrin as previously reported, citing a 2006 Insubria paper on tetraaryl porphyrins as antibacterial photosensitisers; the iron and copper benzyl analogues were made the same way, while the N-methyl comparator porphyrins were bought from Frontier Scientific.
  • In a December 2015 interview Banfi said he had joined the Mario Negri prion work about three years earlier after a meeting at which Chiesa showed porphyrin molecules, that he had worked on porphyrins for about twenty years, that Telethon was funding a three-year project of about 400,000 euro, and that he was synthesising slimmer variants aimed at the blood brain barrier, with a parallel national PRIN application.
  • Caruso is an associate professor of organic chemistry in DBSV; his profile lists photodynamic molecules for cancer and bacterial therapy, bioactive plant extracts, and microemulsions and liposomes for drug delivery as research lines, and does not mention prions.
  • Caruso is a co-author of the 2024 minireview on dual-mechanism compounds aimed at the cellular prion protein, which lists Telethon GGP15225 as its only grant.
  • Caruso is also a co-author of a February 2025 Nature Communications paper with the Chiesa laboratory reporting that the cellular prion protein drives copper uptake and toxicity in Wilson disease models, which also lists GGP15225 among its grants; it is not a prion disease therapy paper.
  • The Insubria research record for the 2023 paper names Caruso as the only internal author.
  • No Insubria paper reporting a new anti-prion analogue, a nanoparticle formulation of the porphyrin, or any in vivo result was found in Europe PMC.

Timeline

  1. 2003First indexed joint porphyrin paper by Banfi and Caruso at Insubria.
  2. 2006Insubria paper on tetraaryl porphyrin antibacterial photosensitisers, later cited as the synthesis route for Zn(II)-BnPyP.
  3. 2011DBSV founded.
  4. 2015Interview on the Telethon funded porphyrin collaboration with Mario Negri.
  5. 2023iScience paper on Zn(II)-BnPyP published online with Banfi and Caruso as co-authors.
  6. 2024Minireview on dual-mechanism anti-prion compounds published online, Caruso co-author.
  7. 2024Flavia Marinelli takes office as department director.
  8. 2025Nature Communications paper on prion protein and copper toxicity in Wilson disease, Caruso co-author.
  9. 2025Department council approves the 2025 to 2027 plan.
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