Research Associate and Project Leader

• Principal Investigator Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore (2010-2016)
• Member of SIgN Scientific Council (2011-2013)
• Senior scientist, deputy head and leader of the molecular biology team of Experimental Immunology, Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel Switzerland (1994-2011)
• Postdoctoral scientist / Research Scientist F. Hoffmann-La Roche Pharmaceutical Research New Technologies Department, Basel, Switzerland (1988-1994)

• Ph.D. in Microbiology ‘‘70/70 cum laude’’, University of Pisa, Italy (1987)
• Fully licensed biologist, University of Pisa (1984)
• Doctor in Biology (M.Sc. equivalent) ‘‘110/110 cum laude’’, University of Pisa (1983)

• Marie Heim-Vögtlin fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (1994-1998)
• Fellowship from the Italian Association for Cancer Research (1985-1987)
• Fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (1985)
• Fellowship from the Italian Gruppo di Cooperazione in Immunologia (1984)

• Postdoctoral scientist at the CNR Center of Cytopharmacology, University of Milano, Italy (Director Prof. F. Clementi, group of Prof. P. Ricciardi-Castagnoli) (1986-1988) Functional characterization of immortalized antigen-presenting cell lines. Mechanisms of self-tolerance in mice carrying self-reacting TCR
• Scientist at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel (Director Prof. F. Melchers, group of Dr. M. Steinmetz) (1985-1986) Genomic organization and gene rearrangement of mouse TCR b genes
• Student at the CNR Center of Cytopharmacology, University of Milano (group Prof. P. Ricciardi-Castagnoli) (1984) TCR genes expressed by mouse T-cell lymphomas
• Student at the Institute of Microbiology, University of Pisa (Director Prof. G. Falcone, group of Prof. M. Campa) (1983-84) In vitro and in vivo studies on immune response during bacterial infections in mice

University of Basel, Switzerland:

• Advisor for ImmunoPhD Club, Immunology graduate student club (2014-)
• Founder and Coordinator of “Basel Immunomeetings”, weekly immunology seminars Phil-Nat Faculty (2001-2010 and 2016-)
• Tutor of Medical School students (2008-2009)
• Mentor undergraduate and graduate students of Experimental Immunology group of Prof. G. De Libero, Department of Biomedicine (1994-)

University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy - A*STAR Singapore:

• Mentor Ph.D. Research Attachment Programme A*STAR-UNIMIB (2013-2015)

Member of doctoral thesis committee of European Universities (Italy, France, Sweden, Portugal).

Swiss Society of Allergology and Immunology (2016-)

Singaporean Society of Immunology (2010-)

European Academy of Tumor Immunology (2016-)

Uni Basel Immunology Community (2015-)

The long-term research interests of Dr. Lucia Mori have centered on antigen-specific recognition by T lymphocytes and in particular on the role of T cells recognizing lipids and metabolites during autoimmune diseases, infection and cancer. The lack of antigen structural changes during immune selection and the absence of functional polymorphism in CD1 and MR1 antigen-presenting molecules, make these molecules excellent targets for novel T cell immunotherapy based on antigen recognition. Present goals are the identification of T cell signatures as relevant disease-specific biomarkers and exploitation of CD1 and MR1-restricted T cells in novel immunotherapeutic strategies.

Presently, Lucia Mori has published >100 papers including in generalist journals: Science (IF=32.45), and PNAS (x3) (IF=10.47). She has published in top-tier journals in the field, including Nature Immunology (x2) (IF=24.74), Immunity (x4) (IF=21.09), Journal of Experimental Medicine (x7) (IF=14.67), Nature Reviews Immunology (IF=34.30) and Annual Review of Immunology (IF-34.87).

Currently, her papers have been cited >5200 times (H-index 35).

ORCID: 0000-0002-5522-4648

Schmaler M, Colone A, Spagnuolo J, Zimmermann M, Lepore M, Kalinichenko A, Bhatia S,Cottier F, Rutishauser T, Pavelka N, Egli A, Azzali E, Pieroni M, Costantino G, Hruz P, Sauer U, Mori L, De Libero G. Modulation of bacterial metabolism by the microenvironment controls MAIT cell stimulation. Mucosal Immunology 2018, DOI:10.1038/s41385-018-0020-9.

Lepore M, Kalinichenko A, Calogero S, Kumar P, Paleja B, Schmaler M, Narang V, Zolezzi F, Poidinger M, Mori L, De Libero G.Functionally diverse human T cells recognize non-microbial antigens presented by MR1. eLife 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24476

Betts RJ, PerkovicA, MahapatraS, Del BufaloA, CamaraK, Howell AR,Martinozzi Teissier S, De LiberoG, Mori L. Contact sensitizers trigger human CD1-autoreactive T-cell responses. European Journal of Immunology 2017 47:1171-1180 DOI: 10.1002/eji.201746939.

Mori L, Lepore M and De Libero G. The immunology of CD1- and MR1-restricted T cells. Annual Reviews in Immunology 2016 May 20;34:479-510. doi:10.1146/annurev-immunol-032414-112008. 

Lepore M,de Lalla C, Ramanjaneyulu GS, Gsellinger H, Consonni M, Garavaglia C, Sansano S, Piccolo F, Scelfo A, Häussinger D, Montagna D, Locatelli F,Bonini C, Bondanza A, Forcina A, Li Z, Ni G, Ciceri F, Jenö P, Xia C, Mori L, Dellabona P, Casorati G, De Libero G. A novel self-lipid antigen targets human T cells against CD1c⁺ leukaemias. TheJournal of Experimental Medicine 2014 Jun 30;211(7):1363-77 doi:10.1084/jem.20140410.

Lepore M, Kalinichenko A, Colone A, Paleja B, Singhal A, Tschumi A, Lee B, Poidinger M, Zolezzi F, Quagliata L, Sander P, Newell E, Bertoletti A, Terracciano L, De Libero G, Mori L. Parallel T-cell cloning and deep sequencing of human MAIT cells reveal stable oligoclonal TCRβ repertoire. Nature Communications 2014 May 15;5:3866 doi:10.1038/ncomms4866.

Vavassori S, Kumar A, Gan SW, Ramanjaneyulu GS, CavallariM, El Daker S, Beddoe T, Theodossis A, Williams NK, Gostick E,Price DA, Soudamini DU, Kong K V, Olivo M, Rossjohn J, Mori L, De Libero G. Butyrophilin 3A1 binds phosphorylated antigens and stimulates human γδ T cells. Nature Immunology 2013 Sept;14(9):908-916.