Franco LocatelliCo-Chair

Franco Locatelli is a full professor of pediatrics at the Sapienza University of Rome, IT, and head of the departments of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology and Cell and Gene Therapy, IRCCS Ospedale Bambino Gesù, Rome. Franco is a well-renowned expert of hematological malignant and non-malignant disorders of childhood. He leads the largest program for the treatment of childhood cancers in Italy and is the chairperson of the current diagnostic and treatment protocol for children with acute myeloid leukemia. He also chairs the working group on relapsed/refractory ALL in Italy. Franco has provided relevant contributions to the study of childhood myelodysplastic syndromes, thalassemia, innate immunity, immune reconstitution after transplantation, tumor immunology, induction of tolerance towards alloantigens, and antiviral cellular immunity in childhood malignancies. His current main fields of translational research are CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells, T cells genetically modified with a suicide gene to accelerate immune recovery after allogeneic transplantation, and gene therapy/genome editing for thalassemia and sickle cell disease.