From Bocconi to Forbes, Thinking About Cambodia

Forbes voted him one of the 30 most influential people under 30 in the world in the field of Science & Healthcare. He scoffs : "I think my last science class goes back to the times of middles school ," he says wryly. "This is the proof ," he explains, " that sometimes you just have to know how to identify a problem and find a way to unite different people to solve it: that is what I 'm trying to do."

He's called Livio Valenti , born in Arezzo 29 years ago and is the founder of Vaxess Technologies, a startup that markets a new generation of vaccines that can be stored without refrigeration . This idea , which promises to revolutionize the pharmaceutical market and the entire field of public health in countries of the developing world, has been so successful that it has attracted to date more than $ 4.5 million in funding.

" Transporting vaccines and other medicines in countries where infrastructure is scarce is complicated ," says Livio . "Vaccines are there, but do not arrive at their destination because there is no way for them to be refrigerated . Our technology has the potential to solve this problem at the source. If we cannot freeze a vaccine , then we have to create a vaccine that does not need to be refrigerated . "
Livio studied at Bocconi University , where he graduated first in Economics and Management of Public Administration and International Institutions ( CLAPI , 2007) , then with a Double Degree in International Management (2009). In 2011 he moved to Boston to obtain a Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government , and since then many things have changed in his life.
After studying at Bocconi Livio had worked for the United Nations in some countries in South East Asia , feeling an increasingly urgent desire to provide more effective responses to the problems of development and cooperation , especially in the field of public health . He just had to figure out how to exploit the technological leverage to generate concrete benefits . At that time he was in Cambodia and was working on a project to support the field of sericulture : "Helping farmers to use silk as a means of income generation and diversification of the rural economy was an exciting challenge ," he recalls . Exciting, but extremely complex. Browsing online in search of inspiration, he had come across an Italian scientist who described the potential of silk for technological applications. " Since that time our stars were aligned ," says Livy, " and I started my collaboration with Fiorenzo Omenetto ," chemistry professor at Tufts University.
Vaxess was born in the classrooms of the Harvard Business School ( HBS ), as part of the course " Commercializing Science" , through the decision to build on the scientific discovery of Professor Omenetto and the courage of Livio and associates to jump into this business. The team of Livio - Michael , Kathryn , Patrick and professors Omenetto and David Kaplan - did not take long to win millions in funding (about $ 150,000 in seed funding , $ 3,750,000 in Series A equity and financing $ 1,000,000 from the state of Massachusetts) and they are now targeting the Gates Foundation.
Future prospects ? "I thought I would come back after Harvard to work for the UN or the World Bank, but the opportunity to solve one of the most complex problems in the field of public health - using a promising technology - did not leave room for doubt : I have to try ! "says Livio . Everything else can wait.