Tutors



Simonetta Pupella

Blood

Hematologist. Post-doc in Transfusion medicine. Master on Quality and quality system. Qualified auditor of Healthcare Services. Deputy Director of the Italian National Blood Centre (CNS) in charge of Medical Affairs & Blood Inspection Systems. She is member of the Inspection expert subgroup (IES) and the Vigilance expert subgroup (VES) of the European Commission. She has been acting as technical team leader in several European projects and joint actions in the field of oversight activities. Full competence in all regulatory issues ruled by national and SoHO European legislation.

Johann Kurz

Blood, Tissues and Cells

From 1988 until 2013 he was responsible for the strategic affairs Blood, Tissues, Cells, Organs in the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health. Official duties at MoH included contributions to European Council Health Group (i.e. ATMP, Commission DG SANTE Regulatory Committee, EMA - Cell based Medicinal Products Working Party, PICS - Expert Circle for Blood & Tissue, WHO (Notify).
After retirement, he has been actively involved in several European initiatives: SIGHTSoHO, GAPP, VISTART, EU Commission (IES; Service Contract - Good practices in the field of blood transfusion), TAIEX & twinning projects.

Sinéad Masterson

Blood, Tissues and Cells, Organs

She worked for the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA, Irish Competent Authority - CA) as Blood, Tissues and Organs Section Manager and Inspector of Blood, Tissue and Organ Establishments for over 10 years. She represented the HPRA at CA Meetings at the European Commission and was involved in several projects at a European level in the Blood, Tissues and Organs area.
Since 2016, she has been working as an Independent Consultant collaborating in a number of projects with the European Commission including most recently, the Evaluation Study and the Impact Assessment Study relating to the Revision of the Blood and Tissue Legislation.

Ursula La Rocca

Blood

Hematologist with research interests in Immunohematology and Transfusion Medicine, and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. She was a post-Doctoral researcher at the Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, Sapienza, University of Rome. She is an active member of the International Collaboration for transfusion medicine guidelines (ICTMG). Currently she is a researcher at the Italian National Blood Centre (CNS).

Fiorenza Bariani

Tissues, Medically Assisted Reproduction

She is a quality and safety expert and senior inspector for Tissues, Cells and Assisted Reproduction at the Italian National Transplant Centre (CNT) where she is also the person in charge of Medically Assisted Reproduction sector. Her main field of activity is the development of quality and safety control and evaluation programs of structures operating in the tissue and cell sector and of their certification of compliance with regulatory standards. She has participated in over 100 inspections of tissue and reproductive cell banks, as inspector and/or team leader. She has also been involved as expert in several European projects and in 2 twinning projects.

Aurora Vassanelli

Blood and Cells

Haematologist with experience in stem cell transplantation, donor evaluation, bone marrow harvest and collection of peripheral blood stem cells and lymphocytes. She has experience in cellular products processing for the Verona Transplant Programme, where she is member of the Quality Management Team. She is a JACIE inspector for Processing area and Quality Management and member of Committee for JACIE Standards. She carried out more than 60 inspections, many of which as leader, for the regional and Italian Competent Authorities. She participated in many European projects. She coordinates the Second Opinion activity for the National Donor Registry and Italian Donor Centres.

Ruth Barrio

Tissues and Cells

She has a degree in Health Science and a master in International Health and Health Management.
She has been working in the SoHO field since 2004 at national and regional level. She worked for three years in the Nacional Transplant Organisation (ONT) of Spain. Since 2007, she belongs to the Catalan Transplant Organisation (OCATT), which is the competent authority for organs, tissues and cells in Catalonia. Some of her main tasks are: participation in the authorisation and inspection procedures, supervision of the activity and results of the centres, surveillance and so on. She has also collaborated on several projects funded by the European Commission.

Anna-Maria Kurzreiter

Blood, Tissues and Cells, Medically Assisted Reproduction

She was an inspector and Senior Expert for 6 years for Tissues and Cells including Medically Assisted Reproduction and Blood. Since 2023 she is also an inspector for Plasma, Medicinal Products and ATMPs at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety. Her main field of activity for the last 6 years was the field of Assisted Reproduction as she is a biologist by training with focus on Embryology and Genetics. Over the last years, she conducted over 200 inspections in Austria and third countries.
She has also been involved in European trainings as participant and in a Taiex Project (Montenegro) as trainer.

Fewzi Teskrat

Blood, Tissues and Cells, Organs

Medical doctor. He has 5-year experience in clinical trials on medicinal products and almost 20-year experience in SoHO inspections, including joint inspections with EU and third-Countries. He was the head of Unit of the inspection department of the French CA. He participated as trainer in many EU projects and as expert in some WHO projects. He was member of the CDPTO (EDQM). He supported several European and third-Country CA for the development and improvement of their inspection systems. He is the leader of a work-cluster on Inspection guidelines and Common EU format for the Inspection Report of EC Inspection Expert Subgroup. He is the co-founder of the EuBIS Academy.

Ana Paula Barreiros

Organs

She is an associated professor and medical doctor in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, Tumour Therapy and Infectiology. Since 2015, she is Executive Physician of the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO), the German Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), where she is head of DSO-section “SAE/SAR”. Since 2019, she is member and rapporteur of the European Commission Vigilance Expert Subgroup for Organs.