Davide Bedognetti, MD, PhD

Dr. Davide Bedognetti, MD, PhD is the Director of Cancer Program at the Sidra Medicine Research Branch and serves as Adjunct Associate Professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. Dr. Bedognetti joined Sidra in 2014. He received his MD and PhD in Clinical and Experimental Oncology and Hematology from the University of Genoa, Italy. After obtaining the Board Certification in Medical Oncology by the University of Genova and Italian National Cancer Institute (IST) in 2008, he joined the Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Section (IDIS) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he completed his post-doctoral fellowship. From 2013 to 2014, he served as Director of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) Center of Excellence at NIH Clinical Center. Dr. Bedognetti is member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Cancer Immune Responsiveness Taskforce, and the FOCIS Centers of Excellence Steering Committee. He is the Editor of the Cancer Microenvironment Section of the Journal of Translational Medicine (Springer Nature), and Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports (Nature Research) and Cancer Treatment Reviews (Elsevier).

The main focus of Dr. Bedognetti's Lab is to define determinants of immune responsiveness in tumors by using integrative genomic approaches. The ultimate goal is to develop novel and personalized therapeutic strategies. The team employs systems biology approaches to dissect the molecular network of host-tumor interactions, and to understand its relationship with treatment effectiveness. They use samples from clinical studies as starting point of their analyses. The research develops around the following themes : i) identification of germline and somatic genetic determinants of cancer immune responsiveness, ii) implementation of genomic pipelines and biobanking to guide treatment selection, iii) harmonization of multi-omics approaches for the identification of non-invasive prognostic, predictive and mechanistic biomarkers, and iv) development of proof-of-principle in vitro studies for the implementation of advanced immunotherapeutic approaches. The program has an emphasis on cancer in women and children.

Darawan Rinchai, PhD