Prof. Luca Gattinoni
Head of Research Division | Functional Immune Cell Modulation
Professor Luca Gattinoni has been dedicated to developing curative T-cell-based immunotherapies in advanced cancer patients for over 20 years. Throughout his career a central theme of his research has been to elucidate how the differentiation state of T cells impacts their effectiveness in adoptive T-cell transfer for tumor eradication. His discoveries have fundamentally shaped the current view in the field which now recognizes the superior therapeutic potential of early memory T cells compared to cytotoxic effector T cells (Gattinoni L. et al, J Clin Invest, 2005 and Gattinoni L. et al, Nat Med, 2009).
Within this framework, Professor Gattinoni uncovered a unique subset of minimally differentiated memory T cells characterized by stem cell-like attributes, aptly named stem cell memory T cells (Tscm). And provided the first evidence that these cells mediate superior antitumor responses after adoptive transfer (Gattinoni L, et al. Nat. Med, 2011).
Recent work
In recent developments, Professor Gattinoni has broken new ground by establishing a clinical-grade manufacturing platform for the production of CAR-modified Tscm cells (Sabatino M, et al, Blood 2016) and by initiating a first-in-human study to test the safety and efficacy of donor-derived CD19-CAR Tscm cells (NCT01087294).
Professor Gattinoni’s current research endeavors are concentrated on reprogramming the fate and function of T cells. These strategic approaches encompass both pharmacologic and genetic interventions, targeting key transcription factors (Ji Y. et al, Nat Immunol, 2013; Gautam S, et al., Nat Immunol, 2019), epigenetic regulators (Ji Y. et al, Nat Commun, 2019), microRNAs (Ji Y. et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2015), and metabolic pathways (Sukumar et al, J Clin Invest, 2013, and Hermans D, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2020). These strategies collectively aim to promote a stem cell-like behavior in T cells, offering promising avenues for advancing immunotherapies in the fight against cancer.
Quote from Prof. Luca Gattinoni
By enhancing T-cell stemness, our goal is to enable T cells to endure long-lasting battles against cancer stem cell-induced tumors.
Head of Research Division Functional Immune Cell Modulation
Biography
Academic background and qualifications
Prof. Gattinoni graduated from the University of Milan School of Medicine with distinction in 1998 and completed his residency in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute of Milan (INT) in 2003. He received postdoctoral training in Cellular Immunotherapy and Tumor Immunology alongside Dr. Restifo at the Surgery Branch of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) from 2003–2008.
Professional career
Prof. Gattinoni remained at the NCI until 2019 as Staff Scientist (2008–2013) and NIH Stadtman Investigator (2013-2019). Since 2019, he holds the Chair of Functional Immune Cell Modulation at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He is currently the Director of the Division of Functional Immune Cell Modulation at the LIT.
Honors
Prof. Gattinoni has published more than 100 manuscripts and has been the recipient of several prizes and honors including the SITC Presidential Award (2004), the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award (2012), and the NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award (2013). Since 2023 he has been an honorary professor at the Amity Institute of Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Amity University, Noida, India.
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