, 6 November 1965) is an Italian scientist and senior researcher at the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità

Istituto Superiore di Sanità

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità , also ISS, is an Italian public institution that, as the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service , performs research, trial, control, counseling, documentation and training for public health...

, ISS), where he is head of the Bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....

 Unit.

Biography

Petrini studied at the University of Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in Biological Sciences. The year after he began at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) where he developed an interest in problems tied to ethics in scientific research, in particular in the biomedical ethics.

In 2005 he became head of the Bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....

 Unit at ISS, a sector that was supported until 2007 by the National Epidemiology Centre (Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia) and subsequently by the Office of the President of the ISS.

Petrini is also coordinator of National and International level research projects in the bioethical field. In his field, Petrini was nominated to serve on the following official commissions and committees:

• Commission on Hematopoietic Cord Blood Stem Cells (Decree of the Minister of the Health, 20 February 2007)
• Experts’ Panel for the Italian National Health Council
• Italian National Transplant Centre
• Joint Commission National Bioethics Committee – National Committee for Biosafety, Biotechnologies and Life Sciences (Presidency of the Council of Ministers)
• Commission of experts for the periodical revision of the list of illnesses in which the use of stem cell transplants is scientifically established (Decree of the Minister of Health19 November 2009)

Petrini is a member of the ethics committees of various institutions, among those the ISS and the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and the Environment (Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile, ENEA

ENEA (Italy)

The L'Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile is an Italian Government sponsored research and development agency...

). He is a member of other commissions and committees which include the National Commission for the Program of Crossover Kidney Transplant, the Commission for the Definition of Criteria for Kidney Allocation, the Working Group "Clinical trials with mentally incapacitated subjects" of the Italian National Bioethics Committee, and the Interdepartmental Group of Oncology at the ISS. He is Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life

Pontifical Academy for Life

The Pontifical Academy for Life or Pontificia Accademia Pro Vita is a Pontifical Academy of the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to promoting the Church's consistent life ethic...

.

He is a member of the advisory committees of various journals in the bioethical sector, including the editorial board of Journal of Clinical Research & Bioethics. He is editor of the Section “Ethics of Biology” of the journal “Biologi Italiani” of the Italian Association of Professional Biologists.
Petrini has provided bioethical consultation for several prestigious institutions including: Italian National Blood Centre; Italian Superior Council of the Magistracy; European Science Foundation; Italian Data Protection Authority; Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana “Giovanni Treccani”.
Petrini is currently a lecturer in the Bioethics Department of the University Regina Apostolorum and in the past a contracted Bioethics professor in the Medicine Department at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

Works

Petrini has published over 400 scientific works in both Italian and international journals. His book Bioethics, environment, risk won the International Peccei Prize..

External links

• A more extended CV is available at http://www.iss.it/site/attivita/ISSWEB_istituto/RicercaPersonale/dettaglio.asp?idAna=1501&lang=2