Sammy Basso is a 25-year-old Italian who suffers from progeria. He founded the Italian Association Progeria Sammy Basso, to spread knowledge about his illness and to promote research on it.
Progeria is a congenital disease and those affected by this disease have a premature aging and usually die at the age of 13 years. Growth retardation begins as early as 9 or 24 months and leads to abnormal facial development, such as a small disproportionate face, bulging, protruding eyes, and underdeveloped jaw. By the age of 2 all hair, eyebrows and eyelashes fall out.
However, this disease does not change the mind, which remains the only indicator of the true age of the patient. Illness has not stopped Sammy Basso from achieving his goals. He graduated for the second time at the University of Padua, in Molecular Biology in the Department of Biology.
Sammy's dream, after graduation, was to work at CERN in Geneva. In the academic year 2014-2015 he enrolled in the Physics department at the University of Padua. While a year later, he enrolled in the Faculty of Natural Sciences with the aim of deepening research on progeria once he finished his studies. Two days ago, on March 23, 2021, he received a master's degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Padua.
