Luigi Naldini

Biography

  Mr. Luigi Naldini has been President of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT, 2012-2014). In his early career, Mr. Naldini identified the ligand for the Met receptor with Hepatocyte Growth Factor. For the last 20 years, Mr. Naldini has pioneered the development and applications of lentiviral vectors for gene transfer, which have become one of the most widely used tool in biomedical research and upon entering clinical testing, are providing a long sought hope of cure for several untreatable and otherwise deadly human diseases. Throughout this time he has continued to investigate new strategies to overcome the major hurdles to safe and effective gene transfer, bringing about innovative solutions that not only are being translated into new therapeutic strategies for genetic disease and cancer but have also allowed novel insights into hematopoietic stem cell function, induction of immunological tolerance and tumor angiogenesis. He serves as the Director of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy of University of Torino, Director of the Division of Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and Gene Therapy and Professor at the San Raffaele University. He has been member of the Human Gene Editing Study Committee by the National Academies of Sciences and of Medicine of the USA since 2015; He has been member of the National Advisory Committee on Biosafety since 2016, Biotechnology and Life Sciences (2016-2020) and of the Advisory Committee to the Italian Ministry of Health. He served as Member of the Advisory Council (2008-2012) of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), has served on several Scientific Committees of the ASGCT, ESCGT, American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), International Society of Cell Therapy (ISCT). Mr. Naldini serves as Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Magenta Therapeutics, as a Member of the Board of Directors of European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (2005-2008). Mr. Naldini has been a member of EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2008 and was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from ASGCT in 2014. He carried out post-doctoral work in the U.S.A. with Yossi Schlessinger (1987-89), was visiting scientist with Inder Verma and Didier Trono at the Salk Institute (1994-96), subsequently had independent appointments at Cell Genesys, California (1996-98) and the University of Torino prior to moving to Milan in 2002. Mr. Naldini received his M.D. from the University of Torino, Italy in 1983 and his Ph.D. from the University of Rome in 1987.

Research Interest

Gene and Cell Therapy