ALBERTO AREZZO 

Alberto Arezzo is Associate Professor of Surgery at the Dept. of Surgical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Torino, Italy. He has a long experience in minimally invasive surgery, since the early 90ies, with particular interest in the treatment of colorectal cancer. Educated at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) under Gerhard Buess, he was initiated to surgery through the transanal approach (TEM – Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery) first and to design operative techniques for flexible endoscopy through several devices he contributed to conceive and design. During this time, he became partner of some of the major companies in the field, such as Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific, with particular interest towards the application of the concept of Natural Orifices Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) of which he is awarded as a pioneer. His interest in the field of technologies included the application of robotics, as well as the development of microrobots for endoluminal surgery, for which he owns a prestigious patent named RED – Robot for Endoscopic Dissection.

Along his career he received several national and international fellowships and awards both for clinical studies and for achievements in technology for surgery. He is currently Vice-Coordinator of the PhD Course in Bioengineering and Surgical Sciences, he is teaching Principles, materials and applications of robotics in biomedicine as well as Planning, management and analysis of clinical and laboratory research. Since 2017 he is Research Lead at MITIC (Minimally Invasive Therapy & Innovation Centre), at the University of Torino, Italy. Since 2019 he is Editor of the journal Minimally Invasive Therapy and Allied Technologies, Official Journal of the Society for Medical Innovation & Technology of which he has been President in 2017. He is member of the Scientific Committee of UEG, United European Gastroenterology, Chair of both the Technology Committee and the Program Committee of the European Association Endoscopic Surgery (EAES). He took part as local coordinator to the EU Projects CLEANTEST (FP5 2001-2003), VECTOR (FP6 2006-2011), STIFF-FLOP (FP7 2012-2015), ENDOO (H2020 2015-2019).