Franco Lori

Franco Lori is founder and Chief Business Development Officer of EcoAida, a deep-tech startup born from research at the Porto Conte Ricerche science park in Alghero. EcoAida develops metal-free, carbon-based nanoparticles that, activated by ordinary visible light, lower the microbial burden on the surfaces they functionalize. Embedded once into coatings, rigid surfaces and technical fabrics, they are designed to provide long-lasting protection without releasing chemicals — in healthcare, transport and marine settings, and in orbital habitats where sterilizing supplies are hard to carry. Laboratory-validated and backed by international publications and patents, the technology is now moving to industrial partners. Franco Lori received his M.D. from the University of Parma, Italy, specialized in hematology and completed his Ph.D at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (CNR) in Pavia, Italy. He then joined the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, directed by Robert Gallo, where he focused his research on antivirals. Dr. Lori has over 30 years of research and drug development experience in immunology and virology research, with more than 130 published manuscripts and over 20 patents filed. Lori co-founded the Research Institute for Genetic and Human Therapy, USA, where he serves as Scientific Director and responsible for supervising most of the research projects and management of the Italian laboratory. Later, he established multiple enterprises dedicated to developing drugs and devices targeting microbes. In 2000, he was awarded the internationally prestigious 'Hero in Medicine' (IAPAC) for inducing the first case of HIV functional cure (The Berlin Patient). Outside the lab, he is a devoted opera enthusiast and a lifelong reader of science fiction. That's why he dreams of turning today's space stations into the one Kubrick imagined: clean, orderly, and set this time not to Strauss, but to a soaring Aida melody.