Rino Rappuoli
Rino Rappuoli
Title: “The Power of Microbes and a Sustainable Planet”
Abstract: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has been a painful reminder that microbes, by causing infectious diseases, often changed the course of human history by killing more people than any war, destroying flourishing economies and causing the extinction of powerful civilizations. Fortunately, only 1400 of the 1 trillion microbial species living on Earth are responsible for infectious diseases. The other microbes support every form of life on Earth and make the planet habitable. For example, the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS) is calling on microbiologists to take advantage of the power of microbes to identify microbe-driven solutions that can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. IUMS believes that many microbe-mediated solutions can contribute to mitigating climate change. Microbes can reduce greenhouse gases by mitigating CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions. Microbes can produce biofuels, increase soil fertility and food production, increase clean water availability and contribute to the health of people by providing a healthy and diverse microbiome, and by producing medicines and vaccines to prevent pandemics and infectious diseases.
Bio: Rino Rappuoli is Scientific Director of the Biotecnopolo di Siena Foundation and head of MAD Lab Toscana Life Sciences, Italy. He is also Honorary Professor of Vaccinology at Imperial College, London and Senior Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Siena. Prior positions held: Head R&D and Chief Scientist at GSK Vaccines, head of Vaccine R&D at Novartis, CSO at Chiron Corporation and Head R&D at Sclavo.
He earned his PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Siena, Italy, and was a visiting scientist at Rockefeller University and Harvard Medical School.
He is elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Royal Society of London and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Awards received: Gold Medal by the Italian President, Albert B Sabin Gold Medal, Canada Gairdner International Award, European Inventor Award for Lifetime Achievement, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the Robert Koch Award. He is President of the International Union of Microbiological Societies. He was voted the world’s third-most influential person in the field of vaccines at the Terrapinn World Vaccine Congress in 2013. Currently, he is ranked second most important person worldwide in the speciality of vaccines by ScholarGPS. He has published 818 works in peer-reviewed journals and has an H-index of 165.
He introduced novel scientific concepts: genetic detoxification, cellular microbiology, reverse vaccinology, pangenome. Developed licensed vaccines: acellular pertussis containing a non-toxic mutant of pertussis toxin; first conjugate vaccine against meningococcus C; conjugate vaccines against meningococcus ACYW, MF59-adjuvanted seasonal and pandemic influenza, (MF59 was the first vaccine adjuvant approved for human use after the aluminium salts), meningococcus B by reverse vaccinology; cell culture-based influenza vaccine, respiratory syncytial virus, CRM 197 as a carrier of most conjugate vaccines.
Founder of the GSK Vaccines Institute for Global Health (GVGH), Professor Rappuoli is among the world’s scientific leaders dedicated to the sustainability of global health.
Affiliation: Fondazione Biotecnopolo di Siena, Siena, Italy
