Antonio Lanzavecchia

  Antonio Lanzavecchia (born October 9, 1951) is an Italian immunologist. He was born in Varese, Italy. In 1976 he obtained his degree with honors in Medicine at the University of Pavia where he specialized in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases. From 1983 to 1999 he was a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology and in 1999 became director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland. He has been Professor of Immunology at the University of Genoa and at the University of Siena. Dr. Lanzavecchia’s research has covered several aspects of human immunology: antigen processing and presentation, dendritic cell biology, lymphocyte activation and traffic and, more recently, the cellular basis of T and B cell memory and the production of human monoclonal antibodies. He awarded the EMBO medal in 1988, the Cloëtta prize in 1999 and he has been nominated Cavaliere della Repubblica in 2001.

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Research Activities

• Human T and B cell cloning and T-B cooperation.
• Antigen capture, processing and presentation
• T cell targeting with bispecific antibodies
• HLA polymorphism, epitope mapping and alloreactivity
• Formation and stability of peptide-MHC complexes
• Monoclonal T cell expansions and NKT cells
• Allelic exclusion and dual-receptor T and B cells
• Culture and characterization of human dendritic cells
• Role of chemokine receptors in leukocyte traffic
• Mechanisms of T cell receptor triggering and costimulation
• T cell activation, differentiation and memory subsets
• B cell activation and memory
• Human monoclonal antibodies from memory B cells

Membership

• Italian Society for Immunology (GCI, SIICA), since 1980
• European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), since 1988
• The Henry Kunkel Society
• Royal College of Physicians
• Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie, honorary member
• American Society for Immunology, honorary member

Editorial activities

• Science (journal): board of reviewing editors 1997-2005
• European Journal of Immunology: executive committee member
• Journal of Experimental Medicine: advisory editor

Patents

• Lanzavecchia A: Potent T Cell Modulating Molecules US2004/0162411 A1
• Lanzavecchia A: Monoclonal antibody production by EBV transformation of B cells WO2004076677

Special lectures and courses

Art Stern Memorial Lecture, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, 1995 Wellcome Visiting Professorship, St. Jude, Memphis 1999 Heremans Lecture, University of Brussels, Belgium, 2000 Grabar Lecture, French Society for Immunology, 2000 The NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture, Bethesda, 2000 Arthur Levin memorial Lecture, Guy’s King’s St. Thomas’ School of Medicine, [[London, 2000 American Association of Immunology, Distinguished Lecture, 2001 Guru at the Annual NIH Immunology Interest Group, Airlie, Virginia, 2002 The Henry G. Kunkel Lecture, [[Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2002 Jack Pepys Lecture, British Society for Immunology, 2002 Advanced Course in Immunology, Institute Pasteur, Paris, since 1992 FEBS International Summer School on Immunology, Ionian Village, Greece, since 1998

Appointments

Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille Luminy (CIML), SAB member The Wistar Institute, SAB member International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), SAB member Istituto Nazionale di Genetica Molecolare (INGM), SAB member Micromet, SAB member Trubion Pharmaceuticals, SAB member Pevion Biotech, SAB member Z-cube, SAB member Humabs, founder and BOD member Synapsis Foundation, SAB member Claudia Von Schilling Foundation, SAB member

Publications

Lanzavecchia has been involved in over 130 publications. The full list can be found here.

References

• Institute for Resarch in Biomedicine