Professor Campanella completed a Pharm D in 2001 and earned a doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in 2005 (advisor: Prof. Rosario Rizzuto). He continued his training under the supervision of Professor Michael R Duchen at the University College London as EMBO/MarieCurie PostDoctoral Fellow before becoming tenure in 2008. His commitment to biomedical research, academic citizenship, and service to scholars resulted in his receiving the Paul Harris Fellowship from the Rotary Foundation in 2014 and the Talented Young Italian Award in 2015. In the same year, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. In 2018, the year in which he received a Professorial Chair, he was granted a Consolidator Award from the European Research Council (ERC). In 2022, he succeeded in the ARC competition for a Leader in Oncology Award and was appointed Director of Research. His activity focuses on the mechanisms that control mitochondrial function, signalling, and interactions with other organelles in physiology and pathology.

Rob Taylor is Professor of Mitochondrial Pathology at Newcastle University, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of the NHS Highly Specialised Mitochondrial Laboratory at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is Scientific Director of the North East and Yorkshire Genomic Laboratory Hub, co-chairs the NHS England Rare Disease Test Evaluation Working Group and is Chair of the Association for Clinical Genomic Science. His research focuses on mitochondrial gene discovery and delineating disease mechanisms, translating genomic innovation and discovery into clinical practice through improved diagnosis and clinical management. His laboratory collaborates extensively both nationally and internationally, leading studies to identify ~40 disease genes associated with a range of mitochondrial and neurological disease phenotypes and contributing to >550 peer-reviewed scientific papers.