Michele De Palma PhD

Michele De Palma is a tenured associate professor of cancer biology at EPFL and executive director and chair of the scientific committee of the AGORA Cancer Research Center (Lausanne). Miki obtained a PhD degree in cell biotechnologies from the University of Torino Medical School, where he studied the contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to tumor angiogenesis. He performed post-doctoral studies at the Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (TIGET) in Milan under the direction of Dr. Luigi Naldini, where he developed gene transfer strategies for reprogramming monocytes into anti-tumoral immune cells.

Miki's work has led to first-in-kind clinical trials of engineered monocytes in patients with brain cancer (NCT03866109). He joined EPFL in 2012, where he teaches cancer biology. Current research in his lab focuses on mechanisms of tumor resistance to immunotherapies mediated by myeloid cells and the angiogenic vasculature, as well as the development of engineered dendritic cell therapies. Miki has served on the editorial advisory boards of Science Translational Medicine (AAAS), Cell Reports (Cell Press), and Cancer Immunology Research (AACR). He received two European Research Council (ERC) programme grants (in StG 2009 and CoG 2017) and was awarded the Robert Wenner Prize for Cancer Research in 2017.