Paolo Ghia, M.D., Ph.D. Instituto Scientifico San Raffaele (Italy)

Paolo Ghia received his M.D. from the University in Torino, Italy, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. He received his Ph.D. working at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland, where he studied the development of normal human B lymphocytes. He then moved to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, where he studied the molecular mechanisms responsible for the pathogenesis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, aiming at transferring his immunological knowledge into the hematological arena.

He is now working in Milano, as assistant professor at the San Raffaele University, Scientific Coordinator of the Lymphoma Unit, Department of Oncology, and principal investigator in the Laboratory of Lymphoid Malignancies at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute. His research interests include the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the onset of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, of the role played by MBL (Monoclonal B-cell Lymphocytosis, which is the precursor stage of CLL) in the pathogenesis of the disease, and of the relevance of biological factors (e.g Immunoglobulin genes mutational status) in defining CLL prognosis. He is chairman of the basic and translational committee of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC) and member, as CLL expert, of the Advisory Board for the Scientific Programme Committee of the European Hematology Association (EHA).