STEFANO PERSANO

Postdoc

Stefano is a researcher specializing in RNA therapeutics and gene delivery for cancer immunotherapy. He began his PhD in Biomolecular Nanotechnology at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2013, during which he spent two years as a visiting researcher at Houston Methodist Research Institute (USA). He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada, focusing on heterologous vaccination strategies combining oncolytic viruses and mRNA-based cancer vaccines. In 2019, he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at IIT, where he investigated innovative nanotechnology-based strategies to enhance cancer immunotherapy.

His career also includes industrial research experience at BioNTech and CureVac, where he contributed to the development of RNA-based therapeutics and delivery technologies. Before joining the Azuma Lab, he was a senior researcher at the University of Milan and the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), where he led research integrating RNA engineering and nanocarrier development to advance RNA-based technology.