The new Dean's Office of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences

The Council of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of Università della Svizzera italiana has appointed the new Dean's Office team for the 2027–2028 term. From 1 January 2027, Professor Alain Kaelin will take on the role of Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, succeeding Professor Giovanni Pedrazzini at the end of his mandate. Joining him in the new Dean's Office will be Professor Mariagrazia Uguccioni as Vice-Dean for Research and Professor Mattia Arrigo as Vice-Dean for Education.

The Faculty Council wishes to thank the outgoing Dean's Office — Professor Giovanni Pedrazzini, Professor Greta Guarda and Professor Luca Gabutti — for their work during their mandate, supporting the growth of the Faculty and contributing to the development of its educational, clinical and research activities during an important phase in the consolidation of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences.

Professor Alain Kaelin will lead the Faculty through a further phase of consolidation in research, education, and clinical and scientific collaboration, strengthening synergies between USI, its affiliated research institutes, and the regional hospital network.

Alain Kaelin earned his medical degree and a PhD in Neurosciences from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern. He specialised in Neurology at the university hospitals of Zurich and Bern. From 1999 to 2001, he held a research fellowship in movement disorders and neurophysiological research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland (USA). In 2004, he obtained his habilitation in Neurology at the University of Bern, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2012.

He founded the Movement Disorders Centre in the Neurology Department of the Insel Hospital in Berne in 2004 and led it until 2013. Since 2014, he has been the Medical and Scientific Director of Neurocentro della Svizzera italiana at EOC, and since 2017, he has been a Full Professor at USI. Since 2025, he has also served as Coordinator of the PhD Programme of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences and Head of the USI-EOC Translational Research Institute.

His research activity, both clinical and basic, focuses on understanding movement disorders such as dystonia and Parkinson's disease. In 2017, he was a founding member of the Swiss Society for Movement Disorders and served as its first President.

Professor Mariagrazia Uguccioni received a degree in Medicine from the University of Bologna, where she specialised in Haematology in 1994. From 1993 to 2000, she conducted research at the Theodor Kocher Institute of the University of Bern. A founding member of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, since 2000 she has directed the "Chemokines in Immunity" laboratory and, since 2010, has served as Vice Director of the Institute. From 2016 to 2022, she was Associate Professor at Humanitas University, where she taught Histology. Since 2023, she has been a Full Professor at USI within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences.

She was elected Member of the Bologna Academy of Science in 2009 for her studies on the factors regulating the migration of immune system cells in human disease. Together with her research group, she continues to investigate the role of these mechanisms as potential therapeutic targets in autoimmune diseases, cancer and infections.

Professor Mattia Arrigo, specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, is a Full Professor of Internal Medicine at USI and Head of the Internal Medicine Service at Ospedale Regionale di Lugano. Originally from Lugano, he graduated in Medicine from the University of Zurich, where he earned his doctorate, completed specialist training in General Internal Medicine and Cardiology, and achieved his habilitation in 2018.

After gaining clinical and research experience in Paris, particularly at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, Hôpital Lariboisière, and the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, he served as Head of the Cardiology Intermediate Care Unit and as a senior physician in the Heart Failure and Transplant Service at the University Hospital Zurich. Before joining EOC, he served as Deputy Head Physician at the Department of Internal Medicine at Stadtspital Zürich Triemli.

Since 2020, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of USI. His clinical and scientific activity focuses in particular on acute cardiology and heart failure. He is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is currently Chair of the Acute Heart Failure Study Group of the European Society of Cardiology – Association for Acute Cardiovascular Care for the 2024–2026 term.