Paolo Ghia received his MD from the University of Torino, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. He received his PhD working at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland, studying the development of normal human B lymphocytes. He moved to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, where he studied the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, particularly of follicular lymphoma. He is now Full Professor in Medical Oncology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, and Deputy Chairman of the Division of Experimental Oncology, at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano where he is also Head of the Laboratory of B-Cell Neoplasia and Director of the Strategic research program on CLL.

His research interest is the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms acting in the natural history of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), including Monoclonal B-cell Lymphocytosis (MBL) with the overall aim of translating the knowledge into the definition of more reliable prognostic markers and more targeted therapies. On these topics he has published over 260 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. He is President of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC), collaborating to the guidelines for the detection of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD), for the analysis of the mutational status of the immunoglobulin (IGHV) genes and of the TP53 gene aberrations.