Born and Educated in Italy I obtained my doctoral degree at the University of Trieste in 1989. From 1990 to 1995 I have developed technologies for DNA extraction and DNA sequencing in a start-up company, Talent Srl.I moved to Japan in 1995 at RIKEN, Tsukuba Life Science Center as a postdoc to became a tenured researcher (1997). From 2008 I became a Team Leader, a Unit Leader and a Deputy Project Director at the RIKEN Omics Science Center in Yokohama. I have developed additional technologies to analyze the transcriptome, including full-length cDNA and the CAGE technologies. These technologies have been broadly used in the FANTOM project, allowing identification of non-coding RNAs as the major output of the mammalian genome and providing the most comprehensive maps of the mammalian transcripts, promoters and enhancers, broadly used in the ENCODE and the FANTOM projects. From April 2013, I became the Director of the Division of Genomic Technologies, Deputy Center Director at RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, where I have been developing the next generation of technologies to to broadly study life sciences, including single cell methods. I have published >300 papersAwards:2001: Biotec Award, first prize for Italian biotechnologists under 402007: Yamazaki-Teiichi award for Biological Science and technology: http://www.mst.or.jp/prize/2007/bio_en.html2010: RIKEN Omics Science Center Oscaward 2009 for the development of the CAGE technology: http://www.osc.riken.jp/english/outline/award/2009/2011: RIKEN Omics Science Center Oscaward 2010 for the successful completion of the Fantom 4: http://www.osc.riken.jp/english/outline/award/2010/2012: NISTEP award, http://www.nistep.go.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/nicestep-press2012.pdf2107: Shimadzu Prize, http://www.clst.riken.jp/en/topics/news/170306news/#