Federica Cavallo

Federica Cavallo is Full Professor of Immunology (General Pathology) at the University of Turin, Medical School and carries out her research activities in the Laboratory of Immunology, Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, situated in the Molecular Biotechnology Center, Via Nizza 52, Turin. Graduating in Biological Sciences from Turin University in July 1989, in 1991 she was selected for the Ph. D. program (Immunology) of the University of Turin, concluded in 1995 with a final Ph. D. thesis entitled “Therapeutic potential of anti-tumor vaccines made through the transduction of cytokine genes”. In 1995 obtained a post-doctoral fellowship of the Italian Ministry of Health to work on AIDS research, while in 1996 was selected for a post-doctoral fellowship of the University of Turin to study the ability of rIL-12 to activate an anti-angiogenic activity in tumor cells. In the same year she was the recipient of the Award on Innovative Therapies, Italian Society for Cancer Research, Milan, Italy. From 1998 to 2000 she was a researcher at the Center of Immunogenetics and Experimental Oncology CIOS, National Research Council, Turin, Italy, working on “Novel compounds that inhibit the activation of CD4 positive T cells as immunosuppressive agents”. She was a tenured researcher of the University of Turin from 2001 to 2006 and an Associate Professor from 2006 to 2016. She was the recipient of the Award on Innovative Therapies, Italian Society for Cancer Research, Milan, Italy, in 1996, and of the Begnudelli Award, Pezcoller Foundation, Trento, Italy, and the Angelo Costa Award, Medical School, University of Turin in 2005. In May 2016 she won the “Made in Research” business game organized by the University of Turin with the project “MeraVax”, a DNA vaccine for dogs with surgically resected oral malignant melanoma. Federica Cavallo is a well-known, internationally reputed scientist, with a very good track record in the field of cancer immunotherapy. She is a member of numerous scientific associations among which: the Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology And Allergology (SIICA); the Italian Network for the Biotherapy of Tumors (NIBIT); the European Society for Cancer Research (EACR); the European Society for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (ESCII); the European Academy for Tumor Immunology (EATI); the International Society for Electroporation-Based Technologies and Treatments (ISEBTT); the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR); and the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). She has numerous scientific collaborations with national and international partners. Among them: Dr. Rolf Kiessling and Dr. Lars Holmgren of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Dr. Soldano Ferrone of the Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Dr. Christian Ottensmeier and Dr. Natalia Savelyeva of the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Federica Cavallo has a long and successful experience in tumor immunology and translational cancer immunotherapy. Her pioneering work on the role of cytokines in the immune recognition of tumors is recognized worldwide. She has made important contributions to the recently recognized potential of cancer immune-prevention and to the development of tumor vaccines, most notably for breast cancer, with an emphasis on targeting antigens involved in malignant transformation and cancer stemness. These achievements are important to the international community as proven by the large number (>170) of papers that she has published in high impact level journals (h-index: 42; data from Scopus). Moreover, she has a number of patents to her name as inventor and has participated at numerous international congresses, as invited speaker and/or moderator.