panel > Italian Research Day 2025

Event date: The April 30 2025
Place: Italian Cultural Institute Los Angeles
For a fee: No

The Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, in collaboration with ISSNAF (Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation), are pleased to invite you to an evening celebrating the Italian Research Day in the World 2025—a global initiative promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to highlight the contributions of Italian scholars abroad.
This year’s Los Angeles edition will spotlight women in science, featuring a conversation with three Italian researchers leading groundbreaking work in Southern California: Sofia Fatigoni, Research Scientist at Caltech, focused on experimental cosmology and the early universe; Elisa Franco, professor at UCLA, whose interests bridge synthetic biology and molecular control systems; and Alba Grifoni, immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, specializing in T cell responses to viral infections. The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Alessandro Sette, a member of the ISSNAF Board, whose career spans more than four decades and has significantly advanced our understanding of immune responses in cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and infectious diseases.

Information

Wednesday, April 30 2025 | 6:00 pm
ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA A LOS ANGELES
1023 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90024

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Insights

Sofia Fatigoni is an Italian astrophysicist specialized in Experimental Cosmology.
Sofia’s research aims to detect B-mode polarization patterns in the CMB, which could provide insights into the early universe and test the theory of cosmic inflation. She participated in four Antarctic missions to deploy telescope receivers at the South Pole. In 2022, she joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), continuing her work on the BICEP Array and engaging in the development of new technologies for next-generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) telescopes.
Beyond her work on the early universe, Sofia has also made key contributions to the study of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
https://sites.google.com/view/dr-sofia-fatigoni/about-me
https://www.vanityfair.it/article/come-si-vive-in-antartide-polo-sud-storia-sofia-astrofisica

Elisa Franco is a Professor in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering at UCLA. She received a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Automation from the University of Trieste, Italy. The Franco group works on research problems at the intersection of DNA/RNA nanotechnology and mathematical modeling, with focus on design and synthesis of responsive materials using nucleic acids and proteins. These projects are funded by the NSF, the DOE, the Sloan Foundation, and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA. Prof. Franco is the recipient of an NIH MIRA award, an NSF CAREER award, a Rose Hills Foundation Young Investigator award, and is a Hellman Fellow.
https://www.seas.ucla.edu/francolab/

Alba Grifoni, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. She studies how T cells—key players in our immune system—respond to viruses, helping us understand how our bodies fight infections and how we can better prepare for future viruses of potential concern. While her primary focus is on T cells, she works closely with researchers who study B cells to get a fuller picture of how the immune system protects us.
https://www.lji.org/labs/grifoni-lab/

Dr. Alessandro Sette has devoted more than 40 years in biotech and academia to understanding and measuring immune responses, and developing disease intervention strategies against cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and infectious diseases. Dr. Sette’s laboratory is a world leader in the study of the specific structures, called epitopes, recognized by the immune system. Over the last 20 years, Dr. Sette has established and overseen the national Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), a freely available, widely used bioinformatics resource, receiving more than 40,000 visits a month. Dr. Sette’s lab defines the hallmarks of beneficial immune responses (for example fighting infection), as opposed to immune responses that are ineffective or that cause harm (for example in allergies, cancer or autoimmunity). The laboratory’s focus is on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson, Alzheimer and ALS, allergic asthma, and acute and chronic viral and bacterial infectious disease.
Dr. Sette is a Doctor in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome and did postdoctoral work at the National Jewish Center in Denver, Colorado. In 1988, Dr. Sette joined the newly founded company Cytel, in La Jolla, and founded Epimmune in 1997, where he was Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer until 2002, when he joined LJI as Head of the Division of Vaccine Discovery. Dr. Sette is Adjunct Professor for UCSD as well as The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Sette is a co-author of over 1000 peer-reviewed publications. Among his many honors and awards, Dr. Sette is an Elected Fellow of the AAAS (2020); Elected Honorary Member of the Accademia Medica di Roma (2021); and Fellow of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, and Elected Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology (2023).

panel > Italian Research Day 2025

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