The 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Franco Locatelli, MD, PhD
Franco Locatelli, M.D., PhD is a Full Professor of Pediatrics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, President of the Italian Higher Council Health and Head of the Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome. He has been the President of the Italian Association for Pediatric Haematology-Oncology AIEOP from 2004 to 2006, and served as chairman of the European EWOG-MDS consortium from 2005 to 2011. Professor Locatelli leads the largest programme of childhood allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Italy. He is an expert of hematological malignant and non-malignant disorders of childhood. He is the chairperson of the current diagnostic and treatment protocol for children with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia of childhood, and chairs the working group on relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Italy. He is chairperson of the international protocol of chemotherapy-free treatment of childhood acute promyelocytic leukemia. During his career, he has provided relevant contributions in the study of childhood leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, thalassemia, innate immunity, immune reconstitution after transplantation, tumour immunology, induction of tolerance towards alloantigens and anti-viral cellular immunity. His current research interests are CAR T cells for both B-cell malignancies and solid tumours, T cells genetically modified with a suicide gene to accelerate immune recovery after allogeneic cell transplantation and gene therapy/genome editing for hemoglobinopathies.