Dr. Ferrara is Distinguished Professor of Pathology and the Hildyard Endowed Chair in Eye Disease at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

Dr. Ferrara earned his M.D. degree in 1981 from the University of Catania Medical School in Italy.  After completing his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, he joined Genentech Inc. in 1988. It is there where he spent nearly 25 years working on the isolation, molecular cloning and biological characterization of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This work resulted in the development of bevacizumab (Avastin), the first anti-angiogenic agent to be approved by the FDA for cancer therapy. His research also led to the development of ranibizumab (Lucentis), which has been FDA-approved for the treatment of multiple intraocular neovascular disorders. Ranibizumab and other anti-VEGF agents are currently the standard of care for ocular vascular disorders.

In January 2013, Dr. Ferrara joined the University of California, San Diego as a Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology & Pharmacology. Since 2020 he is also endowed Hildyard endowed chair in eye diseases. He is continuing his research on angiogenesis, with the aim of understanding the mechanisms of resistance and finding additional targets.

Dr. Ferrara is author or co-author of over 300 publications which have been cited over 200,000 times (Google scholar). He is also the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the General Motors Cancer Research Award, the Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Champalimaud Vision Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award and the Keio Medical Sciences Prize. Dr. Ferrara is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, USA.