2023-11-08 17:46:33
70% of the 2023 ‘Lombardy is research’ prize of 1 million euros will ignite the engine of a collaboration with the USA, betting on a local immunotherapy network, a network of public and private research centers that in Lombardy are investing in Car-T therapies. The focus will also be on young researchers: particular attention will be given to training activities and the organization of exchange visits. This is the choice of Carl June, one of the two winners (together with the surgeon and immunologist Steven Rosenberg working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda) of the ‘Lombard Nobel’.
June, present today at the award ceremony on the occasion of the sixth Research Day at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, directs the ‘Center for Cellular Immuotherapies’ of the University of Pennsylvania, and in detail has decided to allocate the funds to the creation of an initiative of continuous collaboration between the center of excellence that he and his colleagues have created in Philadelphia and the network that is being created in Lombardy for the implementation of research and development projects for Car-T therapies and advanced therapies, promoted by the public Irccs National Cancer Institute (Int), San Gerardo and Policlinico San Matteo, to which private Irccs such as San Raffaele and Ieo can also join. This is the nucleus around which to build the ‘Lombardy network’ which could also include other centers that offer advanced therapies to their patients.
The collaboration between Lombardy and Pennsylvania will be aimed at creating a network for biomedical research, treatment and production in the experimental and academic field of Car-T and advanced therapies, promoting research, development and production activities of academic products aimed at ‘therapeutic use, explains the Region in a note. There is also an annual scientific meeting planned between Milan and Philadelphia.
The award for American scientists was presented by the president of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, and by the councilor with responsibility for University, Research and Innovation, Alessandro Fermi, at the end of the sixth edition of the Research Day, conceived and created by the Region to reward the best scientific discovery in the field of Life Sciences. This year’s theme was ‘Innovative models of care, therapy and prevention’. And the choice was made by a jury of 14 top scientists of international level, chaired by Marco Bianchi, professor at the Vita Salute San Raffaele University of Milan.
Immunotherapy with patient-derived cells represents a turning point in the fight against cancer, recalls the Region. After decades in which surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy were the only options, immunotherapy has now joined traditional therapies as an innovative therapy with promising results for otherwise untreatable forms of cancer, the note reads. It is the era of ‘drug cells’ against tumors, a trend to which Rosenberg and June have made a significant contribution. Their studies provided immune cell immunotherapy with a proof of principle, demonstrating that this approach works.
The future development of immunotherapy will be to increase the repertoire of tumors that can be attacked, increasingly perfecting the creation of new reprogrammed cells, with increasingly higher specificity. Immunotherapy today therefore increasingly presents itself as an integrated system of approaches. Furthermore, we are not talking about immunotherapy only against tumors, future applications could also concern other pathologies, such as autoimmune diseases, recalls the Region. In all of this, Rosenberg and June’s insights were revolutionary.
#Nobel #Lombardia #bets #immunotherapy #network #region