Prof. Lucio Luzzatto Muhimbili University of Health and Applied Sciences, Tanzania

Lucio Luzzatto received his MD from the University of Genova Medical School in 1959, trained in haematology in Pavia, and at Columbia University in New York. He has worked at the University of Ibadan, International Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, Hammersmith Hospital,... read moreMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College. Since 2002 he has been the Chair of Haematology the New National Institute for Cancer Research, Genova, Italy. Lucio’s main goal in research and teaching has been the understanding of human disease at the molecular level; throughout his career he has always combined scientific work and clinical work. His research has concentrated on the genetic basis of blood disorders. Main contributions include (a) Molecular Genetics, clinical aspects and populations genetics of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase(G6PD); this was the first human enzyme of which molecular cloning was achieved with M G Perisco in 1986. (b) Genetics of haemoglobinopathies and inherited susceptibility to malaria. Lucio Luzzatto’s group helped to elucidate the mechanism whereby several genes expressed in red cells confer relative resistance against lethality of Plasmodium falciparum. (c) Pathogenesis, molecular basis and clinical aspects of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuruia (PNH). Lucio Luzzatto with his collaborators first provided evidence that this was a clonal disorder; subsequently his group identified the underlying biochemical abnormality, and with Bruno Rotoli and others provided the currently accepted model to explain the expansion of PNH clones. Lucio Luzzato has about 300 publications in learned journals and several chapters in major textbooks.