P6, Areta International (http://www.aretaint.com/) will play a key role in WP2 implementation. Areta International is a biotech company dedicated to the contract development and manufacturing of biotechnology products and cell-based medicines. The company was founded in 1999 and is located in the Insubrias Biopark, 30 km Northwest of Milan. Areta is organized in two divisions: Areta services (GMP and R&D) and Areta research (Research and Co-development of bio-drugs). The GMP unit is focused on manufacturing of bio-drugs for advanced therapies. Stem cells for tissue regeneration, tumour treatment using cells or recombinant proteins, antibodies for therapy or for therapeutic cells selection and DNA as vaccine are examples of projects being performed by Areta. In the R&D field Areta has developed more than 300 projects of customized monoclonal antibodies specific to different antigens. The company has also a unique skill in setting up immunological and cell-based tests for characterization and quality control of different products.

The managerial tasks at Areta will be assumed by Maria Luisa Nolli, the founder and CEO of areta international. She holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Pavia and a Ph.D from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Dr. Nolli has more than 20 years’ industrial experience as scientist and group leader in the field of Cell Biology and Immunology working at the Lepetit Research Center, part of multinational group of Dow Pharma (Merrell Dow, Marion Merrell Dow and Hoechst Marion Roussel). Since 2007 she is also Chief Executive Officer of HO.p.e. s.r.l, a spin-off of the State University of Milan, with areta international, for the development of an innovative universal kit to ascertain growth hormone abuse for anti-doping purposes as well as biomedical applications. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Assobiotec, the Italian biotechnology industry association, Board Member at EuropaBio, the European Association for Bio-industries and Member of the European Federation of Biotechnology. She is author and coauthor of more than 30 papers and 11 patents and she obtained: “The Piazza Mercanti Award” 5th edition (2007) given by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, and the “Rosa Camuna Prize” from Regione Lomabrdia (2012). She is also one of the 100 profiles of the volume dedicated to the city of Milan of the series entitled “The women protagonist” (2010).