Prof Girardis is the head of the Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Department of the Modena University Hospital and Professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia . He began his career at the Department of Physiology and Biology of the University of Udine, Italy, and in 1994 and 1995 he participated in the Euromir Missions of the European Space Agency in Moscow for the study of the effects of prolonged microgravity in humans. In 1997, after a one-year experience at the Department of Anaesthesia, Physiology and Pharmacology of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, he became responsible for the running of the intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Udine. In 2001 Prof Girardis moved to the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

From January 2019 Prof Girardis is the chair of the educational committee of the Italian Society of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation (SIAARTI) and in the same Society was member of the directive council and of the publication and research committee and coordinated the working group on infection and sepsis from 2012 to 2015. Deputy Chair of the Systemic Inflammation and Sepsis section and member of the research committee of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) and in the same society was member of the council as National representative from 2013 to 2016.

His clinical activity and research is mainly dedicated to intensive care medicine, particularly in the field of infection, sepsis and oxygen transport, from basic pathophysiology to therapy. He participated as principal investigator or national coordinator to numerous research project supported by national govern funds and scientific societies. He is the author of over 150 indexed publications and serves as reviewer for numerous high level scientific journals.

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Prof. Stefano Busani obtained degree with full marks in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia on 07/25/1997. From 2005 Prof. Busani is a Medical Consultant at the University Hospital of Modena in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care. From 2014 is the head of the project “In-hospital emergency". In the anesthesiology care activity, he has acquired particular expertise in the perioperative management of adult and pediatric patients subjected to major abdominal surgery, surgery for kidney transplantation, vascular surgery, obstetric-gynecological surgery, surgery hepato-biliary-pancreatic and urological. In ICU he has acquired specific competence in the treatment of the multi-traumatized patient, of the adult and pediatric patient with head injury, of patients with acute respiratory failure, with acute fulminant hepatitis and of patients with septic and hemorrhagic shock. Furthermore, he has acquired particular expertise in the post-operative management of the patient undergoing neurosurgery, major abdominal surgery, thoracic surgery and liver and intestine transplantation. Prof. Busani is the referent in Intensive Care Unit and professor of Anesthesiology at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

He is the Past President of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry and holds a Master’s degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Padua and a PhD in Oncology from the Universities of Bologna and Modena, with a Specialization in Clinical Pathology and Immunohematology from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. After working at several different institutions in New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles, Andrea Cossarizza became the Associate Professor of General Pathology and Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 1998 and became Full Professor in 2010. He is also Director of the School of Specialization in Clinical Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry.

His scientific interests are immune alterations during different human diseases, in particular HIV infection and autoimmune disorders; immunological changes during aging and longevity; and role of mitochondria during apoptosis and importance of mitochondrial DNA in a variety of pathologies.

He has published >400 paper in scientific journals including Science, Nature, The Lancet, Lancet HIV, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Lancet Rheumatology, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Immunology Today, AIDS, Circulation, Gastroenterology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Blood, Journal of Immunology, European J. of Immunology, among others. Andrea Cossarizza is the leading author of the Guidelines of the Use of Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting in Immunological Studies published in EJI in 2017 and in 2019.

In the last 5 years, he gave three webinars for Science, the last of which on April 30^th, 2020, regarding immune response to COVID-19, that was attended by >8,000 scientists. On May 20^th, 2021, he gave a webinar for Nature. As of September 2021, he has an H-index= 85, a total impact factor IF >2,000 and has received >39,000 citations.

During the challenging times this year Andrea Cossarizza puts all his expertise and efforts into studies with patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. He has published already in March 2020 in Cytometry the first flow cytometry analysis on T cells to answer the question why some patients get infected but do not develop any disease, while others die from this infection, and few weeks later another paper in Cytometry indicating the guidelines for handling infected samples in the lab. Cossarizza and his colleagues could give first answers by describing “Marked T cell activation, senescence, exhaustion and skewing towards TH17 in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia” (Nature Communications), “Expansion of plasmablasts and loss of memory B cells in peripheral blood from COVID-19 patients with pneumonia” (Eur. J. Immunology), "Tocilizumab in patients with severe COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study" (Lancet Rheumatology). Other papers are then published on the importance of innate immune system in this disease, and on the role of age in immune response to SARS-CoV-2.