Emmanuel Donnadieu leads the team ‘Cancer and Immune Response’ at the Cochin Institute, INSERM, in Paris. He received his Ph.D. from Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 (Paris FR) in 1994. Working in immunology for more than 20 years, he has accumulated thorough experience in cell signaling and cellular imaging related to T-cell physiology in lymphoid organs and tumors. His major contributions were the demonstrations of the role of CCL21 in triggering T cell migration within lymph nodes, a defect in T cells to infiltrate human tumors, and the role of macrophages and matrix fibers in this process. He belongs to several national and international networks, including a European H2020 consortium on CAR T cells. His current projects aim at targeting the tumor microenvironment to improve T cell-based immunotherapies, including CAR T cells. He has been a group leader at Institut Cochin, INSERM since 2014, and DR2 CNRS since 2012. He was invited to speak at the 6th Immunotherapy of Cancer Conference (ITOC) (Vienna, Austria) 2019, Protein & Antibody Engineering Summit (Lisbon, Portugal) 2018, International Conference on Immunology, Immunodeficiency, and Immunotherapy (Freiburg, Germany) 2018, and American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (San Diego, USA) 2014.
Dr. Rajiv Pathak, an experienced virologist, embarked on his academic journey with an M.Sc. from the University of Lucknow, India (2007–2009). He then pursued his Ph.D. at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, Delhi, India (2010–2016), where he worked on understanding the role of potential G quadruplex-forming sequences in microbial genomes. Subsequently, he embarked on a scientifically invigorating postdoctoral journey in the Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA (2017–2022). Since 2022, Dr. Pathak has been working as a staff scientist in the same institute. His current research work is multi-faceted and involves understanding the mechanism of various human diseases, including HIV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and SMARCB1-associated atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors. His pioneering work has garnered international recognition, with accolades received at esteemed scientific forums, including the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, USA. He has authored more than 28 peer-reviewed scientific articles that have been published in international scientific journals of high repute, such as Nucleic Acids Research, Acta Neuropathologica, and Nature Communications. His commitment to advancing scientific knowledge is further evidenced by his active engagement with scientific societies, where he serves as an international grant reviewer, editorial board member, and volunteer reviewer for over 20 well-reputed journals in the field.
Vincenzo Di Bartolo is a senior researcher at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. He studied biology and biochemistry at the University of Pisa, Italy. He received the Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) in Immunology from Université Paris Descartes. In 1995, he joined the Molecular Immunology Unit at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) to study TCR signaling. He worked in the Molecular Immunology Unit, Lymphocyte Cell Biology Unit, and now at the Immunoregulation Unit. He investigated the role and the regulation of protein tyrosine kinases ZAP-70 and Lck. He also worked on molecular dynamics and cytoskeletal organization at the immunological synapse and regulation of T-cell functional responses in anti-tumor immunity. He currently investigates the role of immune cells in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory disease. He is a member of the French Society for Immunology.
