2024 AWARDS WINNERS

Outstanding Achievement Award

• Chiara Bonini, Ospedale San Rafaelle, Milan

Supported by:

Chiara Bonini, M.D., Professor of Hematology at the University Vita-Salute, San Raffaele, Head of the Experimental Hematology Unit of Ospedale San Raffaele. She was trained in Milano (Ospedale San Raffaele- OSR), New York (MSKCC) and Seattle (FHCRC). She has been a member of the Boards of ESGCT and ASGCT and chair of the EBMT CTIWP. She is currently member of the Board of ESH, member of the EHA Subcommittee on Cellular Therapy, Councelor of the Board of EHA and Member of ASGCT Program Committee. Her main research focus is allogeneic stem cell transplantation and the development, preclinical and clinical validation of cell and gene therapy approaches to treat cancer

Career Progression Awards

• Serena Scala,San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget), Milan

Serena Scala is Project Leader in the group of Alessandro Aiuti at San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget) in Milan. She is PhD in Molecular Medicine. Her main interests are human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, gene therapy and integration site-clonal tracking. Her works combine deep multi-parametric phenotyping, integration site analyses and single-cell transcriptomic with state-of-the-art functional assays for studying the biology of the hematopoietic stem progenitor cells and their dynamics during hematopoietic reconstitution upon gene therapy. She is currently investigating the role of distinct sources of hematopoietic stem/progenitor subpopulations on the study of HSPC trafficking, mobilization and long-term clonality in GT patients. She developed with her collaborators a novel flow-cytometry technology with numerous clinical and pre-clinical applications in the field of hematology, recently patented.

• Manlio Fusciello, University of Helsinki

Obtained his Bachelor Degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Ferrara, Italy in 2012. After that he moved to the Netherlands to obtain a Master Degree in Biomedical Sciences at Maastricht University, concluded by completion of international thesis at the University of Toronto, Canada in 2014. After that he pursued his doctorate studies and obtained his PhD in August 2023 with distinction at the University of Helsinki at ImmunoViroTherapy lab (IVT) under the supervision of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo. During his PhD Dr. Fusciello investigated the combination of complexing pathogens with tumor associated peptides (TAAs) to created new cancer vaccines platforms eliciting specific anticancer T lymphocytes following Professor Cerullo leadership, a pioneer in this field using oncolytic adenoviruses and tumor peptides.