Dr Alessandro Poggi has been working on cellular and tumor immunology for more than 30 years. He is authors of 203 original articles published on indexed journals and he is a reviewer of several scientific journals. Starting from his first doctoral degree in Biological Sciences (1982), he worked on functional characteristics of leukocyte subsets. After his Post-Doctoral Fellow training at the Ludwig Cancer Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland (1985-1987), he has been appointed as Assistant Member at the IST (Immunopathology Unit) in Genoa studying natural killer cell development and function, molecular aspects of survival of subsets of leukocytes and the role of mesenchymal stromal and stem cells in tumor microenvironment. In 2000, he has taken his second doctoral degree in Medicine and Surgery. He has got specialization in General Pathology (1986) and Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2004). He has the scientific abilitation as full professor in general and Clinical Pathology as well as in Molecular Biology (2014). From July 2009, he is director of the Molecular Oncology and Angiogenesis Unit at the Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genoa. At present, his main research interest is the tumor microenvironment (TME) and regulation of antitumor immune response. This focusing on the molecular mechanisms that can be involved in the relieve of immunosuppression mediated by mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC). Very recently, he is setting up a section of digital pathology to study in colon rectal carcinoma MSC in TME and identify markers relevant to trigger the TME to become immunostimulant instead of immunosuppressive. Further, to this aim, he is studying the delivery with nanovectors of immune activating drugs to tumor in three dimensional culture systems.

Mechanisms of tumor escape from immune system-mediated control, cell activation and signal transduction, activating and inhibiting receptor molecules, molecular mechanisms of immune-regulation, mesenchymal stromal cells and interaction with immune system.