Rino Rappuoli

Last updated
Rino Rappuoli
ForMemRS
Dr Rino Rappuoli ForMemRS (cropped).jpg
Rappuoli in 2016
Born (1952-08-04) 4 August 1952 (age 73) [1]
Radicofani, Italy
Scientific career
Fields
Website www.aditecproject.eu/about-aditec/project-management/dr-rino-rappuoli.html

Rino Rappuoli ForMemRS (born 4 August 1952) is an Italian immunologist. He is currently the Scientific Director of the Fondazione Biotecnopolo di Siena. [3] Previously, he served as Chief Scientist and Head of External R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines, visiting scientist at Rockefeller University and Harvard Medical School, and held senior roles at Sclavo, Chiron Corporation, and Novartis Vaccines. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Education

Rappuoli earned his doctoral and bachelor's degrees in biological sciences at the University of Siena. [7]

Career and research

He is known globally for his work in vaccines and immunology. He co-founded the field of cellular microbiology, a discipline combining cell biology and microbiology, and pioneered the genomic approach to vaccine development known as reverse vaccinology, a subsection of reverse pharmacology. [7]

Rappuoli joined Chiron as head of European vaccines research in 1992 with the acquisition of Italian vaccines company Sclavo SpA, where he served as head of research and development. He was subsequently the global head of vaccines research for Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics (Siena, Italy). [7] From 2015 to 2022, he served as Chief Scientist and Head of External R&D at the vaccines division of GlaxoSmithKline, based in Siena, Italy. [8] He is also a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Siena. [7]

Major achievements include development of CRM197 [9] used in Haemophilus influenzae , Neisseria meningitidis , [10] and pneumococcus vaccines; an acellular pertussis vaccine containing a genetically detoxified pertussis toxin; the first conjugate vaccines against meningococcus; MF59 adjuvant for influenza; [11] [12] the meningococcus B genome-derived vaccine. [4] [13]

During his career, he has introduced several novel scientific concepts: genetic detoxification in 1987; [14] cellular microbiology in 1996; [15] reverse vaccinology in 2000; [16] pan-genome in 2005. [4] [17]

He has mentored a generation of vaccinologists, including Dirga Sakti Rambe and Melvin Sanicas. [18] [19]

Honors and awards

Rappuoli is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 1991. He is a member of numerous international associations, including the European Molecular Biology Organization and the American Society for Microbiology. He also serves as a member of the research directors group of the European Commission and in 2005 [7] was elected to National Academy of Sciences of the United States. He was also awarded the Italian President Gold Medal in 2005 and the Albert Sabin Gold Medal in 2009. [4] In 2013 he was nominated third most influential person worldwide in the field of vaccines by Terrapin. In 2015 he was awarded Fellowship of Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine and the Maurice Hilleman Award. [4]

In 2016 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. [4]

In 2017 he received the European Inventor Award 2017 in the category of "Lifetime achievement" by the European Patent Office. [20] In 2019 he was awarded the Robert Koch Prize. [21]

References

  1. ↑ "Curriculum vitae Rino Rappuoli" (PDF). toscanalifesciences.info. 2014-06-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-04-11.
  2. ↑ "Rino Rappuoli - Google Scholar". Google Scholar. Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "Launch of the European Vaccines Hub for Pandemic Readiness". Institut Pasteur. 23 May 2025. Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Anon (2016). "Dr Rino Rappuoli ForMemRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2016-04-29. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." -- "Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  5. ↑ Covacci, A. (1999). "Helicobacter pylori Virulence and Genetic Geography". Science. 284 (5418): 1328–1333. Bibcode:1999Sci...284.1328C. doi:10.1126/science.284.5418.1328. PMID   10334982.
  6. ↑ Anon (2007). "Rino Rappuoli". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 6 (9): 694. doi: 10.1038/nrd2419 . PMID   17907342. S2CID   40012743.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Trivedi, B. (2006). "Profile of Rino Rappuoli". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (29): 10831–10833. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10310831T. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0604892103 . PMC   1544134 . PMID   16832044.
  8. ↑ "Dr Rino Rappuoli". Archived from the original on 2017-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  9. ↑ Bröker, Michael; Costantino, Paolo; DeTora, Lisa; McIntosh, E. David; Rappuoli, Rino (2011). "Biochemical and biological characteristics of cross-reacting material 197 (CRM197), a non-toxic mutant of diphtheria toxin: Use as a conjugation protein in vaccines and other potential clinical applications". Biologicals. 39 (4): 195–204. doi:10.1016/j.biologicals.2011.05.004. PMID   21715186.
  10. ↑ Tettelin, H. (2000). "Complete Genome Sequence of Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup B Strain MC58". Science. 287 (5459): 1809–1815. Bibcode:2000Sci...287.1809.. doi:10.1126/science.287.5459.1809. PMID   10710307.
  11. ↑ O'Hagan, Derek T; Ott, Gary S; Nest, Gary Van; Rappuoli, Rino; Giudice, Giuseppe Del (2014). "The history of MF59® adjuvant: a phoenix that arose from the ashes". Expert Review of Vaccines. 12 (1): 13–30. doi:10.1586/erv.12.140. PMID   23256736. S2CID   7842318.
  12. ↑ O'Hagan, Derek T; Rappuoli, Rino; De Gregorio, Ennio; Tsai, Theodore; Del Giudice, Giuseppe (2014). "MF59 adjuvant: the best insurance against influenza strain diversity". Expert Review of Vaccines. 10 (4): 447–462. doi:10.1586/erv.11.23. PMID   21506643. S2CID   20377287.
  13. ↑ Pizza, M. (2000). "Identification of Vaccine Candidates Against Serogroup B Meningococcus by Whole-Genome Sequencing". Science. 287 (5459): 1816–1820. Bibcode:2000Sci...287.1816.. doi:10.1126/science.287.5459.1816. PMID   10710308. S2CID   43349049.
  14. ↑ Pizza, Mariagrazia; Fontana, Maria Rita; Scarlato, Vincenzo; Rappuoli, Rino (1996). "Genetic Detoxification of Bacterial Toxins". Vaccine Protocols. 4: 91–110. doi:10.1385/0-89603-334-1:91. ISBN   0-89603-334-1. PMID   21359697.
  15. ↑ Cossart, P.; Boquet, P.; Normark, S.; Rappuoli, R. (1996). "Cellular Microbiology Emerging". Science. 271 (5247): 315–316. Bibcode:1996Sci...271..315C. doi:10.1126/science.271.5247.315. PMID   8553065. S2CID   32437757.
  16. ↑ Rappuoli, Rino (2001). "Reverse vaccinology, a genome-based approach to vaccine development". Vaccine. 19 (17–19): 2688–2691. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(00)00554-5. PMID   11257410.
  17. ↑ Medini, Duccio; Donati, Claudio; Tettelin, Hervé; Masignani, Vega; Rappuoli, Rino (2005). "The microbial pan-genome". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 15 (6): 589–594. doi:10.1016/j.gde.2005.09.006. PMID   16185861.
  18. ↑ Rambe, Dirga Sakti; Sanicas, Melvin (2014). "Safety and Mechanism of Action of Licensed Vaccine Adjuvants". International Current Pharmaceutical Journal. 3 (2): 243–246. doi:10.3329/icpj.v3i2.24024 . Retrieved 19 September 2025. The authors would like to thank Prof. Rino Rappuoli for his valuable guidance and mentorship.
  19. ↑ Sanicas, Melvin (6 November 2021). "So happy to see one of my #Vaccinology mentors, Dr Rino Rappuoli, honoured by the President of the Italian Republic with the "Cavaliere del Lavoro" (Knight of Labour)". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  20. ↑ "European Patent Office. European Inventor Award 2017, Venice, june 15 2017". Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  21. ↑ Robert Koch Prize 2019
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