Gene transfer technologies and new gene therapy strategies

Luigi Naldini

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Email: naldini.luigi@hsr.it
Location: DIBIT1 A3, Floor 2, Room 57

Director, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy
Group leader, Gene transfer technologies and new gene therapy strategies Unit
Group leader, Targeted cancer gene therapy Unit
Full professor, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University

Luigi Naldini, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology and of Gene and Cell Therapy at the San Raffaele University School of Medicine and Scientific Director of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (Milan, Italy). He has received his medical degree from the University of Turin (Italy) and his PhD from the University “La Sapienza” of Rome (Italy). For the past 25 years he has pioneered the development and the applications of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy, which have become one of the most widely used tools in biomedical research and, upon recently entering clinical testing, are providing a long-sought hope of cures for several currently 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 are not only 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. His work also contributed to advance the use of artificial nucleases for targeted genome editing in cell and gene therapy. He has published over 280 scientific papers. SCOPUS Author h-index: 101. He is also co-founder of three innovative biotech start-up companies: Genenta (recently listed on Nasdaq), Epsilen Bio (now acquired by Chroma Medicine) and Genespire.

Naldini has a long and consolidated experience in mentoring young scientists, many of whom now hold positions in prestigious research center and academic institutions. A complete list of researchers who trained under Luigi Naldini can be found here.