**Marco Milone**

Marco Milone was born in Naples, Italy. He is an Assistant Professor and Attending Surgeon at "Federico II" University of Naples, Italy. He received his undergraduate degree in Naples, Italy, and underwent postgraduate clinical and research training in Italy and in the United Kingdom. He holds a PhD in Surgical Science and Advanced Techniques. He has long been engaged in clinical and research work of the gastrointestinal surgery, especially in those of minimally invasive surgery. He has a track record of over 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals, with an h-index of 23 and a citation count of >1400.

He is member of the editorial board of numerous peer-reviewed journals. He is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Italian Society of Endoscopic Surgery (SICE).

#### **Paolo Pietro Bianchi**

Doctor Paolo Pietro Bianchi graduated from the University of Milano in 1989, with an early interest in minimally invasive surgery.

He developed his initial experience in Belgium at the European School of Laparoscopy and in France and Strasbourg at the IRCAD.

He was Chief of the Colorectal and Minimally Invasive Unit in 2004 at the Istituto Clinico Humanitas in Rozzano (Italy) and became the Director of the Minimally Invasive Unit at the European Institute of Oncology in Milano in 2008.

Doctor Bianchi's main interest is digestive surgery and especially colorectal surgery, and he is an expert of sentinel lymphnode detection in colon cancer anda pioneer of laparoscopic ultrasound.

In recent years, he worked on the development of robotic surgery and its application to oncological digestive diseases.

Doctor Bianchi is a Professor of Surgical Technique at the Postgraduate School of General Surgery at the University of Milano, a director of the live courses of laparoscopic surgery in colon cancer, and a founding member of the School of Robotic Surgery at the European Institute of Oncology In Milano.

He is an author and co-author of many peer-reviewed publications and a reviewer for some of the most important journals of minimally invasive surgery.
