Name: Luigi Naldini, MD, Ph.D
Country: Italy
Positions: Director, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy; Head, Gene Transfer Technologies and New Gene Therapy Strategies Unit; Full professor, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Italy
WFH 2020 Congress speaker topic: Non-Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) platforms
Bio: Luigi Naldini pioneered the development and application of lentiviral vectors for gene transfer, which have become some of the most widely used tools in biomedical research, offering hope for a cure for several currently untreatable and deadly human diseases. He has investigated new strategies to overcome the major hurdles to safe and effective gene transfer, and has translated these strategies into new therapeutic approaches for genetic disease and cancer. This has allowed for new insights into hematopoietic stem cell function, the induction of immunological tolerance, and tumour angiogenesis. His work has also contributed to advancing the use of artificial nucleases for targeted genome editing in cell and gene therapy.