Prof. Alessandro Prigione received an MD from the University of Milan Italy in 2002 and a PhD from the San Raffaele University in Italy in 2008. During his training, he worked on neurological disease at University of Milan-Bicocca Italy, mitochondrial diseases at University California Davis (UCD) USA, mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan Italy, and human iPSCs at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin Germany. In 2014, he established his junior group at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin Germany. In 2019, he was recruited by Heinrich Heine University (HHU) in Düsseldorf Germany as tenured Associate Professor of Pediatric Metabolic Medicine in the Department of General Pediatrics.  

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The interest of the Prigione group is to develop induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-based approaches for disease modeling and drug discovery of rare incurable neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting mitochondrial metabolism. A specific focus is on Leigh syndrome, which is an incurable mitochondrial disease affecting children. A repurposable drug identified by the Prigione group following this iPSC-based approach has recently received the Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) from European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of Leigh syndrome. A related clinical trial is currently under development.

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Prof. Prigione is a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the scientific council of AFM Telethon, the scientific committee of Mitocon Italy, the scientific committee of World Congress on Targeting Mitochondria, and is scientific advisor for Cure Mito Foundation. Since May 2021, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Stem Cell Research (Elsevier). Prof. Prigione is the recipient of the 2017 Career Advancement Initiative from the Journal of Molecular Biology, the 2021 Award for Outstanding Achievements by the World Mitochondria Society, and the 2024 Eva Luise Köhler Research Award for Rare Diseases.