Born in Milano, Italy in 1967, Paolo studied at the University of Milano in Italy and graduated with a PhD in Molecular Endocrinology focusing on hormone-dependent cancers such as breast and prostate cancers. He had 3 different post-doctoral Fellowships starting at the University in Milan in 1995, followed by a Fellowship from the Schering Foundation (now Bayer) from 1996 to 1997collaborating to the cloning of the human estrogen receptor b. He moved in early January1998 to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (USA) with a fellowship from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to study mechanism underlying estrogen receptors regulations by coregulatory proteins and cloning a novel regulator for the estrogen receptors responsive to estrogen receptors modulators.

Paolo Martini is now the Chief Scientific Officer International Therapeutics Research Centers and Founder of Moderna Rare Diseases at Moderna, Inc. With more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery working on molecular mechanisms underlying monogenic and multigenic metabolic and fibrotic disorders, his laboratory is focused on identifying novel therapies and applying translational approaches for drug development in Rare Diseases and Hematology disorders. Currently exploring the identification of several targets and key animal models for translating messenger RNA therapeutic in human patients.

Previously at Shire Pharmaceutical in Lexington, MA, as Senior Director of Discovery Biology and Translational Research, Massachusetts, his focus was on fibrotic diseases of muscle, kidney, skin, lung, bone marrow and metabolic liver diseases with particular emphasis on different therapeutic modalities for pathway modulation. He has been part of the launch of V-Priv (velaglucerase alpha) for Gaucher disease and Firazyr for hemoangioedema. He has supported phase 1 and 2 clinical studies for lysosomal storage and chronic kidney diseases.