Chiara Cugno

Chiara Cugno has advanced clinical-grade NK cell manufacturing protocols using cord blood-derived NK cells expanded with IL-21/IL-15 feeder systems, achieving over 1000-fold expansion while maintaining high NKG2D and NCR expression critical for tumor recognition. Her work on GMP-compliant NK cell processing enabled multi-center clinical trials evaluating allogeneic NK cell therapy for acute myeloid leukemia and solid tumors. She investigates genetic engineering approaches to arm expanded NK cells with chimeric antigen receptors while preserving natural receptor diversity.