Orazio Vittorio
A/Prof Vittorio has made major contributions to the development of effective treatments for aggressive childhood cancers. An NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Scientia A/Prof at the UNSW School of Biomedical Sciences, and Team Leader at the Children’s Cancer Institute, he’s published >100 peer-reviewed papers (H index 36) in highly regarded Journals as Cancer Cell, Cell Reports, Human Genetics, Cancer Res, and authored 5 book chapters and 5 patents. He is ranked in the top 5% scientists worldwide (ResearchGate). In addition to his current NHMRC CDF Fellowship-2019, in 2016 he was awarded a Cancer Institute NSW (CINSW) Career Development Fellowship, followed by a CINSW Early-Career Fellowship in 2015 and the UNSW Vice-Chancellor Fellowship in 2013. In total, A/Prof Vittorio has received >$6 million in competitive funding as sole CI (plus >$10 million as co-CI) in the past 5-years. A/Prof Vittorio’s discovery that the level of copper in neuroblastoma and high-grade glioma cells are higher than in normal cells is a world first achievement, and his development of copper targeted anti-cancer therapeutics for aggressive childhood cancers is internationally recognised. Importantly, he developed a PET imaging protocol using radiolabeled copper to monitor tumour response to therapy, which is included in a European clinical trial for monitoring high-grade glioma (EudraCT:2018-004667-30). A/Prof Vittorio has been working with Prof Zigler at the Sydney Children Hospital on a phase I clinical trial (Levis trial) treating children with diffuse midline gliomas with GD2-CAR T immunotherapy. As evidence of his scientific leadership, he was honoured as the 2020 CINSW Outstanding Career Development Fellow of the Year and he received the Tall Poppy Science Award in 2021 and the Cure Cancer Australia Award in 2022.
Abstracts this author is presenting: