Vincenzo Cerundolo

Vincenzo Cerundolo FRS (20 December 1959 – 7 January 2020) was an Italian medical researcher who was the Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Immunology Unit at the University of Oxford, at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a Professor of Immunology at the University of Oxford. He was also a Supernumerary Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. He was known for his discoveries in processing and presentation of cancer and viral peptides to T cells and lipids to invariant NKT cells. Cerundolo died of lung cancer on 7 January 2020.

Early life and education

Vincenzo Cerundolo was born in Lecce (Italy) on 20 December 1959 to Vittorio Cerundolo and Colomba Vissicchio. He went to school at Liceo Scientifico De Giorgi (Lecce) and then to the University of Padua to study Medicine (1979-1984). He went on to complete a higher degree at the University of Padua at the Institute of Oncology supervised by Dino Collavo and Paola Zanovello.

Career and research After his studies at the University of Padua, Cerundolo completed his postdoctoral research with Professor Alain Townsend at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, at the University of Oxford. He was first to demonstrate that TAP genes located within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) transport peptides presented by MHC class I molecules and describe a novel clinical syndrome in patients with defective TAP genes. He characterised the relationship between the length of peptides and their binding affinity to MHC class I molecules, explaining the homogeneous length of peptides isolated from MHC class I molecules. He characterised the structural and kinetic mechanisms by which lipids bind to CD1 molecules and are recognized by T cells and demonstrated that harnessing CD1 restricted Natural killer T cell (NKT) cells enhances antigen specific antibody and T cell responses.

Cerundolo became Director of the MRC Human Immunology Unit in 2010.

Publications His publications include: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018

Personal life Married in 1987, Cerundolo had one daughter and one son.