Luigi Buonaguro

Luigi Buonaguro, M.D.
Director, Innovative Immunological Models
National Cancer Institute “Fond. G. Pascale“, Naples, Italy
Adjunct Associate Professor, Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine, Internal Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA

Education
1988 - Medical Doctor cum laude, Medical School, University of Naples – Italy
Certifications
1988 – M.D. Certificate, Medical School, University of Naples – Italy
1992 – Certification in Microbiology and Virology, Medical School, University of Naples – Italy
Post Graduate Education and Training
1989 Internship at the Lab of Viral Oncology, National Cancer Institute "Fond. G. Pascale", Naples – Italy
1990 Fellowship of the Italian Association on Cancer Research (A.I.R.C.) at the Lab. of Tumor Cell Biology, Natl. Cancer Inst., Natl. Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA.
1991-1992 Fogarty Fellowship at the Lab. of Tumor Cell Biology, Natl. Cancer Inst., Natl. Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA.
1992-1993 Fellowship at the Lab of Viral Oncology, National Cancer Institute "Fond. G. Pascale", Naples – Italy.
1996 Visiting Scientist within in “International exchange program” of the National Research Council (CNR), at the Inst. of Microbiology of the Regensburg Univ., Regensburg – Germany, director Prof. Hans Wolf
2004-2005 Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Human Virology, Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD –USA (Dir. Prof. R.C. Gallo).
2006 (Nov) Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Human Virology, Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD –USA (Dir. Prof. R.C. Gallo).
2005 to date Adj. Ass. Professor, Dept of Medicine, Univ. of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA.
Employment History
1993-1998 Research Assistant at the Lab of Viral Oncology, National Cancer Institute "Fond. G. Pascale", Naples – Italy
1998 - 2009 Research Associate at the Lab of Viral Oncology, National Cancer Institute "Fond. G. Pascale", Naples – Italy
2009 - 2017 Head Immunovirology Lab, Molecular Biology and Viral Oncogenesis Unit, National Cancer Institute "Fond. G. Pascale", Naples – Italy
2018 –2020 Head, Cancer Immunoregulatory Unit, Natl. Cancer Inst. “Pascale”, Naples, ITALY
2020 – to date Director, Innovative immunological Models, Natl. Cancer Inst. “Pascale”, Naples, ITALY
Professional Society Memberships
2004 – to date Member of the Italian Society for Virology (Società Italiana di Virologia - SIV).
2005 – to date Member of the Italian Society for Medical Virology (Società Italiana di Virologia Medica - SIVIM).
2005 – to date Member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
2017 – to date Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
2015 – to date Member of the Italian Society of Cancerology (SIC)
2015 – to date Member of the Europran Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
Editorial Board Membership
Section Editor “Immunovirology” Journal of Translational Medicine;
Co-Editor in Chief The Open AIDS Journal
Editorial Board Member Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
Editorial Board Member Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy;
Editorial Board Member Clinical Vaccine Immunology;
Editorial Board Member Immunotherapy;
Editorial Board Member Infectious Agents Cancer Journal;
Ad Hoc Reviewer for AIDS, JAIDS, J Virol, J Clinical Microbiol, Clinical Vaccine Immunol; J Immunol; PloSOne
F1000 Medicine Faculty Member, Infectious Diseases Section.
Reviewer Acitivities for Funding Agencies
Evaluator EDCTP (European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership) call CT.2006.33111.001
Evaluator European project ERACoSysMed - ERA-Net on Systems Medicine Horizon 2020
Expert Scientific Directorate for Italian Research Institutes Reviewer for the National
Reviewer Medical Research Council of Singapore
Reviewer ANRS
Reviewer Finnish Academy
Reviewer Research Foundation – Flanders
Reviewer Ministry of Science, Technology and Space of Israel (MOST)
Reviewer National Science Center – Poland
Reviewer NHLS RESEARCH TRUST – South Africa
Reviewer Wellcome Trust
Reviewer Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Meeting and Course Organizations
1995 Co-organizer of the Heteroduplex Mobility Assay (HMA) training course, sponsored by the UNAIDS (United Nations Agency for AIDS), Entebbe, Uganda
2006 Co-organizer, International Cancer Vaccine Conference, Naples – ITALY, May 26-28, 2006;
2007 - today Member of Scientific Organizing Committee, of Annual Meeting “AIDS Vaccine”, organized by the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise;
Publications
Dr. Luigi Buonaguro has published, as author and co-author, 173 papers in International Peer-Reviewes Journals. The total H-index is 36 (Scopus).
He ranks 1st in Italy, 19th in Europe for the topic “CANCER VACCINE” in the Expertscape list . Morevoer, he ranks 1st in Italy, 2nd in Europe and 5th in the World for the topic “Virus-Like Particles as vaccine” in the Expertscape list.
He has acted as Guest Editor for Topic Issues on “Novel Vaccines and Adjuvants” (Current HIV Research Journal, Vol. 8, 2010); “Differential use of CCR5 versus CXCR4 by HIV-1. Pathogenic, Translational and Clinical Open Questions” (J. of Translational Medicine, 9(Suppl. 1), 2011); “Virus-Like Particles” (Exp Rev Vaccines, Vol. 12, 2013); “New developments in Cancer Vaccines” (Exp Rev Vaccines, in press, Oct 2013); "Novel Strategies for Anti-Tumor Vaccines" (Frontiers in Immunology, in press 2019).
Major scientific focus
Dr. Luigi Buonaguro is the major contributor in the literature on the development and evaluation of Virus-Like Particles as vaccine approach to HIV.
He is one of the pioneer in applying a systems biology approach to evaluation of vaccines.
He is currently leading two large European Consortia focused on the development of cancer vaccine approaches targeting hepatocellular carcinoma (www.hepavac.eu; www.hepamut.eu ).