Francesco Ferraguti

Francesco Ferraguti serves as Director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Professor of Neuropharmacology at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Since November 2023, he additionally holds a part-time professorship at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He was President of the Austrian Neuroscience Society (2020-2022), serves on the Austrian Science Fund's Scientific Advisory Board, and is a member of the DANA Foundation.

His academic background includes graduation from the University of Modena (Italy) in 1987, completion of clinical nutrition residency there, and further training at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and University of Modena.

Ferraguti's research centers on metabotropic glutamate receptors' structure and function and neuronal mechanisms of emotional information processing. His work bridges neuropharmacology, molecular pharmacology, and cognitive neuroscience, with implications for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Expertise spans neuronal signaling pathways and pharmacological interventions in emotional processing.

He leads the Institute of Pharmacology after previously heading its Department (2011-2023), having directed Glaxo's Molecular Pharmacology Laboratory (1993-1997) and held research positions at University of Cambridge and Oxford's MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit.