Research, Anna Mondino new scientific director of Airc

Anna Mondino is the new scientific director of the Airc Foundation for cancer research. The appointment, effective from September 1, was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of the Foundation, the first private center for financing independent research in Italy. After a life dedicated to research in Italy and abroad, with particular attention to mentoring new talents in science, Mondino is entering the world of non-profit, explains Airc, which supported her at the beginning of her career. She will be entrusted with the scientific strategy of the Foundation and the programming and development of research funding calls. Mondino takes over from Federico Caligaris Cappio, Airc scientific director for the last 9 years.

Born in Turin in 1965 – Airc informs in a note – Mondino graduated in Biological Sciences and obtained a PhD in Molecular Oncology between the University of Turin and New York University. She specialized in Immunology with a post-doctoral research in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota. In 1998 she won a New Unit Start Up Grant from Airc that allowed her to return to Italy and set up the Lymphocyte Activation Unit at the IRCCS San Raffaele hospital in Milan, with the aim of developing new strategies to use T lymphocytes as ‘living drugs’ against tumors. Her studies focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying the behavior of tumors and immune system cells, and subsequently on how to design new immunotherapy approaches.

In addition to being the head of the Lymphocyte Activation Unit within the Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases at San Raffaele, Mondino has served on institutional boards of directors, chair of the Hiring and Promotion Committee and as a contract professor of Pathology and Immunology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University. She is also a member of scientific societies (American Association of Immunology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Italian Network for Tumor Biotherapy, Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology), and a reviewer of scientific journals and international funding agencies.

“Airc – Mondino states – has accompanied me throughout my career: it believed in me as a young graduate by awarding me a scholarship, it gave me the opportunity to open a new laboratory upon my return from the United States, it supported several research projects with numerous Investigator Grants and it gave me the opportunity to participate in an ambitious Airc5x1000 project. Being chosen to lead the scientific direction is the ideal culmination of a growing professional path. I take on this role by taking over from Federico Caligaris Cappio, whom I thank for his vision and the great work he has done in the past years, with the spirit of giving back what I have received and of putting myself at the service of the community of Italian researchers with the conviction that Airc represents the tool to support their creativity and operations. I will do my utmost to promote independent research, continuing Airc’s commitment to financing the most deserving projects, investing in talents capable of transforming ideas into opportunities and promoting dialogue with entrepreneurial realities with which to share the commitment to translational medicine”.

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“The scientific community and the people who face a diagnosis constantly remind us that there is still much to do to find cures for all types of cancer – says Andrea Sironi, president of the Airc Foundation – I am certain that the skills and vision of Anna Mondino, together with the commitment of 6 thousand researchers supported by the Airc Foundation, will allow us to grasp and face the new challenges in the best possible way”.