Soldano Ferrone, MD, PhD, a pioneering cancer immunologist, died January 10, 2023, at the age of 82.
Ferrone was born March 4, 1940. He received his medical degree in 1964 and his doctoral degree in 1971, both from the University of Milan. He held faculty positions at the University of Milan, the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, Columbia University, New York Medical College, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Most recently, he was a professor in residence at Harvard Medical School, an immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a member of the breast cancer and immunology programs at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Ferrone’s research increased understanding of the interactions between lymphocytes, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-specific antibodies, and the complement system of proteins. He developed a large panel of HLA antigen- and human tumor antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies. In recent years, his work focused on the mechanisms of tumor-induced immune suppression responsible for tumor immune escape.
Over the course of several decades, Ferrone published more than 1,000 manuscripts and edited and authored more than 100 books. He was a respected mentor for many early-career scientists. Ferrone served on numerous scientific boards and review committees, including study sections for the National Institutes of Health. Ferrone joined the AACR in 1984. He served terms on the editorial boards of three AACR journals: Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Immunology Research, and Cancer Research. He also served on AACR research grant review committees, was a mentor for the Annual Meeting Grant Writing Workshop from 2005 to 2008 and was an invited speaker for the 2007 Special Conference on Tumor Immunology.
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I met Dr Ferrone through the HLA workshops on HLA expression in human cancer. He visited my laboratory at the Royal Melbourne Hospital about 20 years ago. I fund him to be a gentle man and a very knowledgeable scientist. The world of HLA is poorer without him.
RIP Soldano