Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD
Scientific Advisory Board Vice Chairman
One of the most important aspects of the American-Italian Cancer Foundation’s (AICF) International Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Program is the opportunity if offers young Italian post-doctoral researchers to access some of the best laboratories in the United States, thereby expanding the pool of Italians who are conducting cancer research projects in international settings.
Since 1983, the International Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Program has launched the careers of several hundred young and extremely talented medical oncologists. Salvatore Siena, MD, for example, was one of the first AICF to receive a Fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1983. He is now Director of the Division of Medical Oncology at Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda, the historical general hospital (teaching hospital) in Milan, and an internationally known clinical researcher in solid tumors. Dr. Siena states, “The AICF Fellowship represented a unique opportunity to enter the world of great clinical research. At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, I acquired a passion for clinical research and published the results of my work there in first-class scientific research journals such as BLOOD, beginning in 1984. I also met Gianni Bonadonna and Umberto Veronesi, who gave me the opportunity to return to Italy with a position at Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan.”
It would take many pages to describe the achievements of all the scientists who have received AICF Fellowships over the ensuing 25 years, scientists such as Pier Giuseppe Pelicci, MD, a 1985 AICF Fellow at the NYU School of Medicine, currently serving as Scientific Director of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and a leading figure in research in hematologic malignancy and stem cell research; Vittorio Enrico Avvedimento, MD, PhD, a 1987 AICF Fellow at Columbia University, now holding a Faculty position as Professor of Pathology at the University of Naples and an internationally known figure in the study of gene regulation; Luigi Naldini, MD, PhD, a 1995 AICF Fellow, now Director of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan and considered a pioneer in the development of vectors for gene therapy; and Laura Pasqualucci, MD, an AICF Fellow in both 1998 and 1999, presently an Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology at Columbia University and an internationally known figure in the study of the pathogenesis of human lymphoma, to mention just a few.
The International Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Program’s dual mission of providing opportunities for young researchers and promoting international collaboration in cancer research remains the same as it was when the Program first began. However, given the fact that some of the most innovative ideas come from those just entering the field of cancer research, this mission is more critical than ever as we come closer to unraveling cancer’s mysteries.
Dr. Dalla-Favera is Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and Institute for Cancer Genetics at Columbia University.
