Vincenzo Cerundolo. 20 December 1959—7 January 2020
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Vincenzo (Enzo) Cerundolo (1959−2020) was born in Lecce, Italy. After graduating from high school at the Liceo Scientifico Cosimo De Giorgi, he entered the University of Padua Medical School in 1978 and obtained his medical degree ( cum laude ) in 1984. He completed a PhD in immunology at the University of Padua and then came, with an EMBO fellowship, to work with Professor Alain Townsend (FRS 1992) at the University of Oxford in 1988. He moved to the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford when it was founded in 1989 by Professor Sir David Weatherall FRS and became a group leader in the Molecular Immunology Group. He joined the MRC Human Immunology Unit in 1998 and became its director in 2010, a position he held until his death in 2020. Enzo made a great impact in immunology, particularly in the unravelling of the antigen processing system for peptides presented by class I proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), working with Alain Townsend. He then moved on to explore the related CD1 proteins that present lipids as antigens to T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells. He and Yvonne Jones (FRS 2017) together solved how these lipids bind to CD1 molecules and how antigen specificity is achieved. He also made many contributions to cancer immunology and was actively involved in the design and conduct of clinical cancer immunotherapy trials. Enzo shone as a scientific leader, recruiting outstanding scientists to the MRC Human Immunology Unit and successfully reorientating the focus of that unit towards tumour immunology. He was quick to see the opportunities offered by new technologies in imaging and molecular genetics, bringing them on board to great effect. He was a great mentor of younger scientists and a very effective and much admired director of research. His team was multinational and inclusive, where all felt fully valued. He was also greatly admired internationally, gaining many scientific friends and collaborators worldwide.
Author: Andrew J. McMichael FRS
Institution: University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411096138