Lab Manager

Pietro is the Lab Manager, responsible for the laboratory’s operational organization and he specializes in cellular biology and biochemistry.
He joined the Iannacone Lab in 2010 after he worked at Roche Milano Ricerche and Bioxell.

Technician

Marta obtained her Veterinary Medicine Degree in 2003. She joined Iannacone Lab in September 2008. 

She is responsible for animal care and mice husbandry in our pathogen-free mice facility.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Francesco obtained his PhD in immunology at the University of Paris-Diderot in 2017. He trained as a postdoc at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences “L. Sacco” (Milan) and joined the Iannacone Lab in 2019 to work on CD8+ T cell immune responses within liver.

Postdoctoral fellow

Carlotta completed her Ph.D. in Immunology from the Open University (UK) at Humanitas Research Center and pursued postdoctoral training at ETH Zurich and the University of Milan. In 2023, she joined the Iannacone Lab to study vascular roles in liver diseases.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Andrea holds a degree in psychology (neuroscience curriculum). Between 2016 and 2021 he joined the lab of Jonathan Kipnis for his PhD, working  between the JGU Mainz University (Germany) and  UVA  (USA) were he focused on the trafficking of immune cells at brain borders. He joined the Iannacone lab in 2023 with the aim of unraveling  the neuroimmune interactions in the liver in homeostasis as well as during injuries and different pathological contexts.

PhD Student

Violette obtained her Bachelor of Biology from Sorbonne Université (Paris, FR) in 2019. She did her master’s thesis at Institut Curie (Paris, FR) and graduated with a MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2022. She joined Iannacone lab in September 2022 to work on the function of hepatic dendritic cells. 

Master Student

Alessia obtained her BSc in Biotechnology in July 2023. She is currently in the second year of her Master's degree in Biotechnology and Medical Biology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele. In September 2024, she joined the Iannacone Lab focusing her research on the innervation of the liver.

Bioinformatician

Fabio obtained a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Piemonte Orientale (Novara), an MSc in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Florence, and an advanced postgraduate Master’s in Bioinformatics and Data Science from the University of Siena. He joined the Kulka team in October 2024 as a Research Fellow (Bioinformatician), focusing on characterizing inflammatory monocytes during viral infections.

​Senior Technician

Elisa is a senior molecular biology technician. She previously worked at Centro Cardiologico Monzino in Milan and Bioxcell. She joined Iannacone’s Lab in 2017.

Technician

Chiara obtained her M.S. in Nutritional Biology in 2015. She previously worked in Experimental Immunopathology Lab at Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy. She joined Iannacone’s Lab in 2020 and she works as BSL3 technician and on SARS-Cov-2 research.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Cristian obtained a M.S. in Biochemistry in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Immunology at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina in 2018. He joined the Iannacone Lab in 2019 to work on humoral immune responses in liver immunopathology during viral hepatitis.

Bioinformatician

Pietro graduated in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Bologna, then obtained a PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Verona in 2018, specializing in bioinformatics. He trained as a postdoc at the same University, working on the genomics and transcriptomics of pancreatic cancer. Now he is a bioinformatician at Iannacone Lab, involved in data analysis of several projects.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jordan received a B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of California Davis (Davis, USA). Jordan joined the Iannacone lab in 2024 and is studying CD4+ T cell responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

PhD Student

Alessandro obtained his M.D. at San Raffaele University (Milan) in 2024. Following his graduation, he joined the Iannacone Lab to investigate the interactions of innate immune cells within the microenvironment of colorectal cancer liver metastases.

Project Leader

Mirela Kuka is Associate Professor of Pathology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and Project Leader in the Iannacone Lab. Her research activity focuses on the innate and adaptive immune mechanisms affecting B and T cell responses in viral infections and cancer. She joined the Iannacone Lab in 2013 after a PhD at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics in Siena (Italy) and a postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute/NIH (US).

Research Fellow

Elisa obtained her BSc in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. She is currently completing her MSc in Bioinformatics for Computational Genomics at Università degli Studi di Milano. In June 2024, she joined the Iannacone Lab for her internship, focusing her research on spatial transcriptomics analyses in the context of HBV.

Technician

Leonardo obtained his M.S. in Evolutionary Biology in 2009. He previously worked in a functional genomic and proteomic lab at La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. He joined Iannacone’s Lab in 2016 and he is now working as molecular biology technician.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Valeria obtained her M.S. in Medical Biotechnology in 2016 at University of Milano Bicocca and her PhD at San Raffaele University (Milan). She joined Iannacone Lab in 2016 and she focused on dissecting the role of innate lymphoid cells and B cells in response to viruses as Hepatits B Virus (HBV) and SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Valentina trained during her B.S. at KU Leuven University (Belgium) and graduated at University of Milan. She completed her PhD at San Raffaele, Milan. She joined the Iannacone Lab in 2019 to work on CD4+T cell immune responses in HBV immunopathology.

Bioinformatician

Chiara graduated in Mathematics at the University of Milan and obtained her PhD in Molecular Medicine at San Raffaele Institute in Milan. She is a bioinformatician in Iannacone Lab, primarily working on transcriptomic data analysis

Postdoctoral Fellow

Gonzalo obtained a M.S. in Molecular Biomedicine in 2017 and his PhD in Molecular Biosciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2024. He joined the Iannacone Lab in 2024 to work on CD4 T cell biology during viral hepatitis.

Research Fellow

Francesca earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Bicocca University in 2021. She pursued her Master’s studies in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine, completing her thesis at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona, Switzerland. In November 2024, she joined the Iannacone Lab to explore the tumor microenvironment in colorectal cancer liver metastases.

PhD Student

Maria obtained her B.S. in Biotecnologie Mediche e Farmaceutiche at San Raffaele University (Milan) in 2020 where she started her MSc in Biotechnology and Medical Biology. She joined the Kuka team in 2021 as Master Student to work on the role of inflammatory monocytes upon viral infection.

Technician

Sara graduated in Biological Sciences in 2001 at University of Milan. For several years she continued the academic career. She joined Charles River laboratories in May 2016 where she is responsible for animal care and mice husbandry.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Micol obtained her M.S. at Milan University in 2010 and the Ph.D. in Molecular medicine at SEMM in 2015. She trained as a postdoc at European Institute of Oncology and joined the Iannacone Lab in 2019 to work on chronic HBV mouse model.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Davide obtained his B.S. at University of Florence in 2017 and his M.S at San Raffaele University in 2019. He joined Iannacone’s Lab in 2019 to work on a project that aims to investigate the role of CD8 T cells in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Caitlin completed her B.s.c at The University of Adelaide (Australia) and continued into a PhD program to study type I regulatory T cells in mouse models of influenza infection. She worked for Carina Biotech focusing on improving CAR-T cell therapies for treatment of colorectal cancers. She joined the Iannacone Lab in 2023 as a post-doctoral researcher to work on regulatory T cells in liver diseases.

PhD Student

Marta obtained her BSc in Biomedical Science in 2019 and her MSc in Cancer Cell Biology in 2020 at the University of Sussex, UK. She joined the Iannacone Lab in 2020 to work on CD8+ T cell immune responses within the liver in the context of HBV pathogenesis.

Research Fellow

Francesco graduated at University of Turin in 2024 after attending a training period at University of Zaragoza. He joined the Iannacone Lab in 2024 to work on CD8+ T cell immune responses during viral hepatic infections.

Research Fellow

Valentina graduated in Biotechnology and Medical Biology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Milan) in 2024. She joined the Kuka team for her internship and is now a research fellow focusing on B cells in tumors and viral infections.