Andrea Ditadi, PhD is the Group Leader of the Human Hematopoietic Development and Disease Modeling Unit at SR-Tiget in Milan, Italy. Dr. Ditadi is widely recognized for his work at the intersection of stem cell research and developmental biology. Over the past two decades, he has made significant contributions to understanding the molecular signals and pathways that govern the emergence of blood cells both in vitro and in vivo. He earned his PhD in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Université René Descartes – Paris V, where he studied fetal hematopoiesis in the mouse embryo. During this time, in the laboratory of Dr. Marina Cavazzana at Necker Hospital, he discovered a previously underappreciated population of fetal hematopoietic progenitor cells in the amniotic fluid of midgestation embryos. As a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Gordon Keller at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, Dr. Ditadi harnessed the unique properties of pluripotent stem cells to model early human development and disease. He published seminal studies defining human definitive hematopoietic specification and elucidated the cellular and signaling mechanisms that drive blood-forming cell development. Since establishing his independent research group at SR-Tiget in 2016, Dr. Ditadi has continued to uncover novel mechanisms involved in hematopoietic specification. He pioneered the dissection of mesodermal cells to identify hematopoietic-specific subsets containing the earliest precursors of blood cells, and demonstrated the requirement of retinoic acid for generating engrafting blood cells from pluripotent stem cells. This innovative work bridges developmental biology and cellular therapies, opening new avenues for regenerative medicine. In recognition of his scientific achievements and innovative contributions, Dr. Ditadi was awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.