Immunology and Immunotherapy

Biography

Georgia is currently a Principal Investigator (Group Leader) at the San Raffaele DRI of Milan and her group is conducting investigations on the cellular, molecular, and genetic underpinnings of T1D. Georgia Fousteri completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Crete, School of Biology, Heraklion, Greece (2000). She completed her Master’s degree (2002) and later a Ph.D. degree (2006) in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine at the same University, where she conducted studies on TNF and its role in peripheral immune tolerance in a double transgenic mouse model expressing a class I-restricted TCR and the respective antigen in the pancreatic islets. This is where her journey to type 1 diabetes (T1D) started. She continued her postdoctoral studies (2006-2020) at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in La Jolla, CA, USA, where she conducted basic and translational research in T1D addressing how autoreactive T cells recognize insulin, and how to promote tolerance via antigen-specific immunotherapy. She continued her postdoctoral studies at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (TIGET) and soon after the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) in Milan, Italy, where she contributed to the genetic engineering of Tr1 cells, and the understanding of the autoimmune susceptibility gene Ptpn22 and viruses in Treg-mediated immune tolerance.

Research Interest

Adaptive Immunity, Immunology, Immune-mediated diseases, Allergy