Sammy Basso

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Born in 1995 in Schio. When he was two years and a few months old, he was diagnosed with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria. Together with his parents, he founded the Italian Progeria Sammy Basso Association, which he has witnessed since the age of ten. In 2007, he joined the first study group of the PRF (Progeria Research Foundation) clinical trial with Lonafarnib. Known for his many television appearances and interviews regarding the association's activities and his disease, he became particularly well known in Italy after the National Geographic docu-film entitled 'Sammy's Journey' was aired, which recounts his journey along Route 66, in the USA, from Chicago to Los Angeles, with his parents and one of his best friends, Riccardo.

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In 2018, he graduated from the University of Padua in Natural Sciences, with a thesis aimed at demonstrating the possibility of curing Progeria through genetic engineering. After undergoing, in 2019, a very risky operation to replace an aortic valve (first time in a patient with Progeria), he was appointed, by motu proprio of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 2021, he specialised in Molecular Biology, graduating from the University of Padua with a thesis aimed at clarifying the correlation between Progeria and inflammation.  

In addition to being spokesperson for the association, he works closely with the PRF, also serving as International Ambassador.